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Your New Meter Reader May Be Verizon Wireless; Company Moving Into Cell-Based Meters

Phillip Dampier September 30, 2013 Consumer News, Verizon, Wireless Broadband 1 Comment

meterThat bi-monthly visit from your local utility’s meter reader may eventually be a thing of the past.

Verizon Communications is moving rapidly to establish itself as an “end to end smart grid solutions provider,” providing utility smart meters for gas, electric, and water service that communicate over Verizon Wireless’ cellular network.

“We’re in the midst of a pilot right now, and what we’re piloting is more than the meter data management — we have a meter-to-cash system that includes an advanced metering infrastructure partner as well,” said Ernie Lewis, industry partner with Verizon’s global energy and utility practice.

Verizon hopes to capitalize on forthcoming smart meter adoption, replacing current mechanical meters for natural gas, electricity and water with new electronic meters that have two-way wireless communications capability with the parent utility. Smart meters can offer customers time of day savings for running high consumption appliances during off-peak hours, automatically deliver meter readings to the utility without having to dispatch an army of meter readers to customers’ homes, and support pay-per-use billing that turns the power off when your prepaid account is depleted.

Verizon will manage the potential data demands of such services through cloud networks, potentially through its acquired subsidiary Terremark. Verizon already operates its own energy and utilities enterprise solutions business.

 

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txpatriot
txpatriot
10 years ago

Boy, if VZ thought there were nuts in the cellphone world, just wait until they run into the anti-smart-meter crowd. The crackpots claiming cellphones cause cancer don’t hold a candle to the nuts who claim smart-meters do the same or worse.

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