Orange and Veolia Water launch smart meter operator m20 city

The operator will specialise in environmental data collection and water meter reading services

Orange and Veolia Water have teamed up to create m2o city, a smart metering operator that will specialise in environmental data and water meter reading services.

The partnership aims to help each company benefit from the other's expertise.

"Combining the expertise from both our groups, this company is developing a new business as a smart metering service operator to benefit sustainable towns and cities," said Jean-Michel Herrewyn, Veolia Water's chief executive officer.

Veolia Water already operates 200,000 water meters and Orange is a significant player in the networks market.

The m2o city venture will offer a complete turnkey service to local authorities based on an ultra low consumption radio network.

It will operate on the 868MHz waveband and, in addition to collecting data from water meters, will collate information from environmental sensors.

These could be gathering data on anything from noise to pollution.

It is hoped that m2o city and the data the meters collect will help improve the quality of service for future customers and help optimise water service performance.

"This is perfectly in line with our strategy: joining forces with a major business partner by providing our connectivity and information system management expertise to enable the emergence of new machine-to-machine services to be used as widely as possible," said Vivek Badrinath, chief executive officer of Orange Business Services.