Meter reader, a career bearing the imprint of the past era, has been gradually vanishing since the first invention of old-style mechanical electricity meter in the 19th century. Young people today would not image the scene, that meter readers hold heavy bags wandering about the streets like peddlers or postmen, struggling with heavy sun, snow, dog bark and other annoying experiences. In rugged area in southwest China, meter reader Wei needed to take hanging basket over the turbulent river, and then one hour’s mountain road to read meter for residences living in distant village. Today Automatic meter reading (AMR) not only saves incessant trips, but also records, delivers and analyses efficiently real-time accurate consumption to data base.

The smart metering evolution is achieved by digital communication technology development covering 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and NB-IoT technologies. In 2019, State GRID Corporation of China put forward the concept of SG-eIoT (electric Internet of Things), to build safe, convenient, flexible and economic operation of power grid, with interconnected, human-computer interaction and strong data processing and response support.

Bivocom, a global leading wireless solution provider for IoT and M2M industries, offering high quality 4G/3G/2G/LTE-M/NB-IoT wireless modems, router, gateway, RTU and IoT platform, is looking for 4G modem to replace one of their customers’ existing old GPRS modem for smart grid application in Southeast Asia.

Apart from LTE module’s outstanding presence in smart grid, NB-IoT module is leading the smart metering revolution with its high-performance and extremely low power consumption. It provides a flexible and scalable platform for devices to migrate from GSM/GPRS to NB-IoT networks. As among the first NB-IoT module vendors compliant with 3GPP R13 specification, Quectel’s NB-IoT modules have deeply impressed the global IoT market with its flagship products, like BC95, BC68 and BC66.

“Smart Metering industry has been lately waiting for a reliable yet economical communication pipe enabling utilities to run their applications on top of it, something that finally seems to be on rise in the wake of IoT. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and AMR based on Cellular IoT, has already proven to be a game changing concept in Smart Grid,“ said Mr. Felix Xiao, Quectel Business Development and Marketing Director. “As a matured solution, cellular based IoT would ease deployment of Smart Metering as it offers much wider economy of scale comparing to other legacy solutions such as PLC and RF-Mesh. Quectel has a handful of success cases in domestic and overseas markets where millions of our 4G, LTE-M and NB-IoT modules have already connected countless meters in a dozen countries worldwide.”

“We designed the solution with Quectel 4G module EC25 series in reliable and stable performance, which supports CSD, AT Command and SMS configuration of modem mode for automatic meter reading of smart grid, supporting global carriers’ frequency band. Quectel is able to offer fast and good technical support during the test period, with the help of Quectel’s speedy response, we delivered the solution to customer in time, and have installed more than 2,000pcs modems for this smart grid application,” said Ian, sales director for Bivocom.

Bivocom TD210 Cellular Modem is featured with rich Industrial interfaces, transparent data transfer, built-in standard TCP/IP stack, multi data centers, TCP heartbeat link detection, rich online and offline trigger modes, hardware and software auto inspection technology, SMS Alarm and MODBUS protocol. The solution is cost effective, as there is no need to replace the whole electricity meter with a new one, and all needed is RS485 or RS232 interface to connect the meter and the modem.

Quectel provides rich module portfolio for various needs for smart metering solutions. Quectel multi-mode LTE module EC2X series have been widely used in smart grid, indicating the new marketing trend. It boasts faster speed and wider network coverage, and is also compatible with UC20.

Quectel EC25 is a series of LTE Cat 4 module optimized specially for M2M and IoT applications. Adopting the 3GPP Rel. 11 LTE technology, it delivers 150Mbps downlink and 50Mbps uplink data rates. Designed in the compact and unified form factor, EC25 is compatible with Quectel multi-mode LTE Standard EC21/EC20 R2.0/EC20 R2.1/EG25-G modules and UMTS/HSPA+ UC20 modules, which allows for flexible migration among them in design and manufacturing.

 EC25 supports Qualcomm® IZat™ location technology Gen8C Lite (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo and QZSS). The integrated GNSS greatly simplifies product design, and provides quicker, more accurate and more dependable positioning.

A rich set of Internet protocols, industry-standard interfaces and abundant functionalities (USB serial drivers for Windows 7/8/8.1/10, Linux, Android/eCall*) extend the applicability of the module to a wide range of M2M and IoT applications such as industrial router, industrial PDA, rugged tablet PC, and digital signage.

Apart from LTE module’s outstanding presence in smart grid, NB-IoT module is leading the smart metering revolution with its high-performance and extremely low power consumption. It provides a flexible and scalable platform for devices to migrate from GSM/GPRS to NB-IoT networks. As the world’s first NB-IoT module vendor compliant with 3GPP R13 specification, Quectel’s NB-IoT modules have deeply impressed the global IoT market with its flagship products, like BC95, BC68 and BC66.

“Smart Metering industry has been lately waiting for a reliable yet economical communication pipe enabling utilities to run their applications on top of it, something that finally seems to be on rise in the wake of IoT. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and AMR based on Cellular IoT, has already proven to be a game changing concept in Smart Grid,“ said Mr. Felix Xiao, Quectel Business Development and Marketing Director. “As a matured solution, cellular based IoT would ease deployment of Smart Metering as it offers much wider economy of scale comparing to other legacy solutions such as PLC and RF-Mesh. Quectel has a handful of success cases in domestic and overseas markets where millions of our 4G, LTE-M and NB-IoT modules have already connected countless meters in a dozen countries worldwide.”