Electric Co. just installed "smart meters", and...

Sounds like you have the problem pretty much identified. What I would do is to do a WiFi scan of the available channels.

If you are presently using channel 1 switch to ch 6 or ch 11, if on Ch 6 switch to ch 1 or ch 11, if on 11 switch to ch 1 or ch 6.

Basically move your current current radio frequency to one of the three clear channels farthest from your present channel and see if the problem goes away.

The only other thing I can think of is to run one of the WiFi channel scanners that has a logging feature and let it watch and see what frequencies/channels they are hogging when your meter is polled. The meter itself might have a FCC label on it showing what frequency or channel(s) it is using but it can also be hidden on an internal panel of the meter.

Meant to include this link to an article that might help explain what is happening to you.

More perils of unlicensed RF band usage.

What maker and model meter? If unavailable, the utility company name. If the smartmeter has Zigbee activated, that's probably your problem.

The bars or cones do NOT always indicate signal strength. They usually indicate the SNR (signal to noise ratio). If there's any nearby source of interference, the SNR will drop.

Well, since the half dozen other wireless routers also drop in SNR, it's not your router. Since it happens to all your devices, it's your laptops, tablets, or smartphones. By default, that leaves the smartmeter.

Duz your unspecified service area offer wireless power monitoring? It's an overpriced wireless receiver that tracks the readings on the power meter. Something like these:

No. That would be intermittent and only ocurr ocassionally in a single family dwelling. However, if you're in an apartment building, and happen to be very close to the usual wall full of power meters, you're likely to see almost continuous traffic, simulating what you seem to have observed.

Spectrum analyzer or Zigbee sniffer. You won't see Bluegoof or Zigbee with a typical wi-fi sniffer application. The protocols are very different. You'll see everything with a spectrum analyzer. I haven't done anything with Zibgee interference issues. I found this, but don't know anything about it.

Good luck, but offhand, I think you're screwed. Switch to 5GHz wi-fi.

[snipppppp]

WIth somedifficulty (expletive feleted light gray lettering that's way too small for people to read) I was able to get the meter info.

It's (and the ones my neighbors received) are Centrons, with lots of FCC IDs listed on them.

The basic Centron info page talks about lots of options for remote reading, monitoring, and control, ranging from Verizon LTE to lots of others.

So it certainly seems pluasable they're the cause of my WiFi interruptions.

if anyone's interested, I put a picture of the nameplate up at:

The meter is made by Itron, Inc as an "Itron OpenWay Centron Smartmeter".

Home Area Network (HAN) Every OpenWay CENTRON meter includes a ZigBee radio for interfacing with the HAN, in-home displays and load control devices The OpenWay CENTRON can store consumption from 2.4GZ OpenWay gas modules utilizing the ZigBee radio This means that if you have a natural gas meter with a Zigbee radio, it too can interfere with wi-fi.

This is the FCC ID data for the utility part of the radio running at

900MHz Spread Spectrum, which is unlikely to be causing Wi-Fi interference on 2.4GHz:

This is the LTE data part of the radio, which uses LTE data on 777-787 MHz and 1710-1755 MHz. This is unlikely to cause wi-fi interference on 2.4GHz:

This is the Zigbee SE radio operating on 2405-2475 MHz and is probably what's causing the interfernce on 2.4GHz:

[snip]

A Texas sized tip of the hat for your assistance.

Thanks