General Electric announced Monday that it will provide a Houston-area utility with wireless communications infrastructure to upgrade its electric grid, a sign that the technology giant has larger aspirations than previously thought in the emerging smart-grid sector.

GE’s Digital Energy division will provide “thousands” of its MDS Mercury 3650 radios to support CenterPoint Energy’s smart-grid build out. Once installed, the WiMAX-based radios will wirelessly transmit data from consumer’s smart electric meters to the utility’s data center.

“This is definitely the first sign, maybe one of the first shots across the bow, and shows GE is serious about getting involved in this area,” said Jacob Grose, an analyst with Lux Research.

GE is one of the top smart-meter makers in the country, but the deal marks the first time the company has provided wireless network infrastructure for an electric utility’s metering system. That piece of the smart-grid market so far has been the focus, primarily, of a host of startups, like Redwood City, California-based Silver Spring Networks and Jackson, Mississippi’s SmartSynch.

California-based utility Pacific Gas and Electric, for example, announced last year that it plans to deploy as many as 10 million GE meters by the end of 2011 as part of its smart-grid build out. The meters will be equipped with two-way communications technology from Silver Spring.

But GE’s move into the wireless networking side of the electric grid isn’t entirely surprising. The company’s MDS product line has over 1 million wireless devices installed worldwide across multiple industries including oil and gas, water and wastewater and transportation. The technology, in other words, has been tested. And the company, through its meter offering and other products and services, has a wealth of experience working with utilities.

CenterPoint plans to eventually provide smart meters, built by Liberty Lake, Washington-based Itron, to over 2.4 million customers across the Houston area. Once GE’s wireless communication network is in place, the utility will be able to offer new products and services to consumers, such as the ability to monitor their energy usage and prices real-time from home computers. The wireless network will also help the utility monitor its grid and respond to problems more quickly.

As part of the deal, GE will also provide CenterPoint with engineering services, network design and project management to support the smart-grid build out.