And Vodafone NZ have sold GPRS / 2G data M2M services to the electricity gentailers for their 'smart' meters.

Electricity companies expect to get at least twenty years out of metering devices (and in many cases in the past got thirty to forty years), so would be royally pissed off with any supplier who suddenly made all their meters obsolete.

VFNZ's GPRS / 2G data M2M services will be around for a l-o-n-g time