[UNCLEtom]

Hi,

Not sure if you anyone here can assist..?

I mobilise apartment buildings and on a recent new build development, the developer was supposed to provide all smart meters and also to include in-home readers to all apartment. Instead, they have installed a mixture of old style electric meters (with no smart functionality) and some smart meters. However, even the smart meters installed are not syncing with Eon remotely or any in-home readers.

The developers have has 12 months to rectify the defect, but have not managed to make any improvements. They are saying that the signal is not good enough to install functional smart meters.

My question(s) are;

- It it feasible that poor signal could be a factor to a Smart meter not functioning as smart?
- What kind of signal to Smart meters rely on
- Is there a way to improve or boost this signal?

I look forward to hearing from you

Regards

[retrotecchie]

@UNCLEtom

Poor signal is usually the reason why smart meters don't work as 'smart'.

In the northern half of the UK, smart communications are managed by Arquiva's LRR (Long Range Radio) network although there are some very patchy coverage areas in Cumbria and parts of Scotland. In the southern half of the UK, smart metering uses cellular type communications on the Telefonica/O2 network, although as 2G and 3G are being switched off, the network is becoming less reliable. Going forward, newer meters will have 4/5G communications provided by Vodafone.

If you live in an area with no O2 signal or where O2 codeshare on another provider's mast as is quite common, if the masts are switched off, there is nothing in place to fill the gap.

You cannot improve or boost the signal. Better antennas may help reception to a degree, but beyond that, there's nothing to help much.

[UNCLEtom]

@theunknowntech

[UNCLEtom]

@retrotecchie appreciate your quick response