Toshiba to take on the U.S. smart meter market

The U.S. home energy market now has a new competitor as Japan's Toshiba (OTC: TOSBF.PK) plans to enter the market by the end of this year.  

Toshiba has high hopes for its home energy plans. The Japanese company has forecast that its small community business, which is dedicated to consumer energy management, will generate 900 billion yen ($11.67 billion) in global sales by fiscal year 2015. In the U.S. alone it expects to generate 140 billion yen ($1.82 billion) in sales.

Timing of the launch is key for Toshiba. Over the next three years, utilities will install smart meters in about half of the 96 million U.S. homes in addition to another 5 million homes.

In tandem with metering, Toshiba will also get to play a part in the service provider industry's move into the smart grid and home management market.

The Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) recent study, "Utilities Telecom Spending Market Forecast," revealed that utilities' spending on two-way metering and associated networking represented about 32 percent or about $1 billion of the total utility telecom spending in 2011.

For more:
- Reuters has this article

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