Matt Maupin: The Meter as a Transitional Element

The answer is both and both have pros and cons depending on the use case.

Early on, it is best to have the meter as the gateway as this provides a good control point for the utilities and more importantly provides the quickest and most direct route into the home. If users want data, whether consumption, usage, etc, it can be directly received from the meter. if this data is required through a seperate ESI, that info is then going to go through the Internet, to a service provider. That data will not be real time as the backhaul from the meters today and for the near future is a much smaller pipe and only gives interval data.

Longer term as both the HAN and NAN are built out and interval data becomes more realtime, it makes sense to have both as it expands the use cases for the consumer to include enhanced services both in and outside the home.