Government Makes it Possible to Read the Meter - When there's No-one Home

DTI Press Release - 13 July 1998

Staying at home to wait for the gas man will be a thing of the past as the Government today announced measures to allow gas, electricity and water meters to be read remotely.

The Radiocommunications Agency has allocated space on the airwaves which will allow industry to develop low-powered radio equipment able to tune in and read your meter - all without the need for a home visit.

Barbara Roche, Minister for Trade and Industry, said today:

"The Government is working to help industry and consumers by allocating part of the spectrum - a finite national resource - so that flexible and innovative technologies, using the airwaves, can be developed.

"Waiting for the meter to be read can be the last thing you want to do if you are in a hurry to get out of the house. Allocating part of the radio spectrum to allow companies to tune in and read the meter could bring this chore to an end.

"This demonstrates the Government's commitment to create better services for consumers by working in partnership with industry."

Today's announcement followed last year's establishment of a working group set up by the DTI's Radiocommunications Agency and representatives of the major utilities, covering the fuel, power and water supply industries. It is expected that the remote reading technology will be available within the next two years.

An allocation of spectrum between 183.5MHz and 184.5MHz has been identified as suitable for low power radio equipment to remotely read and monitor the metering of gas, electricity and water supplies. Data collected may be used, not only for billing purposes, but to predict and control peak demand / flow rates, identify faults and outage and to combat unauthorised tampering with the supply or meter. It is proposed to initially deploy two of up to five 200kHz blocks of this spectrum.

One block consisting of eight 25kHz channels will be made available nationally for licensing under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 on a shared basis. This spectrum may be employed only for metering purposes and the radio element of the system must conform to the technical specification MPT 1601.

The second block will consist of one 200kHz channel to be made available on a nationally exclusive basis to a single user for the purpose of providing third-party meter reading services commercially to the utility industries. Again the system must conform to the MPT 1601 specification and applicants will be expected to provide a detailed business and technical proposal to demonstrate the feasibility of adequately serving the intended customer base. Any successful applicant will also be licensed under the Telecommunications Act.

Notes for Editors

1. Shared channels will be made available on application and payment of a licence fee to the Radiocommunications Agency from the closing date of this notice. In the event of more than one credible application for the exclusive allocation, the Agency reserves the option to issue more than one exclusive licence, by using the other frequency blocks in this range and by means of a competition should that prove to be necessary. Unassigned blocks in this frequency range will be reserved for review within three years of the closing date of this notice, for possible expansion or further allocations for remote meter reading services.

Written comments, or applications for an exclusive allocation for remote meter reading, should be submitted by 3 August 1998 jointly to:

2. The licence fees under the Wireless Telegraphy Act are proposed as £8,000 per annum for each licence to use the shared allocation and £80,000 per annum for an exclusive allocation.

3. Under article 10 of the EC Licensing Directive, each Member State should:

limit the number of licences awarded only to the extent required to ensure the efficient use of radio frequencies,
consult and enable interested parties to express views,
give due weight to the need to maximise benefits for users and facilitate competition.

 

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