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According to a post by Tom Schaller on 538.com, FedEx and UPS use the US Postal service to deliver packages to remote rural areas, instead of doing it themselves. In the article, he quotes a former postal employee:

Nearly every time I was in a rural post office FedEx or UPS would show up, bring a load of packages to be delivered and pay the postage to have them delivered. I asked a few Pm’s [postmasters] about it, they each explained that it was cheaper for them to pay the Postal Service to deliver the packages than to have to drive their trucks sometimes miles into very remote areas.

Why can’t we have a nationwide wireless phone and data network equivalent to the USPS? This infrastructure would provide service to the rural and remote areas where none is available. It’s not as if AT&T and Verizon are interested in providing service to these areas. They could adopt the same model as FedEx and UPS and pay this federal wireless broadband entity for capacity in those areas on an as needed basis. Increasingly, safety and rescue operations are relying on cellular service to help them perform their tasks. National wireless coverage may become a necessity.

Speaking of electric vehicles and the smart grid, it looks like Better Place is way ahead of me.  They have termed the coming interaction between the smart grid and the electric vehicle fleet the “electrical vehicle network” and are aiming to treat electric vehicles like cell phones.  Their goals are ambitious, here’s a sample: