Mobile not-spots impede smart meter rollout

Patchy signals mean some homes are unsuited to current smart meters

The patchy mobile network coverage in Britain is causing a serious handicap for the deployment of smart meters – a cornerstone of government eco-planning – resulting in homeowners complaining the equipment cannot be installed at their properties.

The deployment of smart meters in homes and business premises is picking up pace, with the likes of British Gas claiming to have installed 200,000 smart meters already. It also plans to install a further 100,000 next year.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change wants the meters to be installed in 47 million British properties by 2020.

But there may be large areas of the UK where the meters cannot be installed because of so-called mobile not-spots.

Cellular networks have become the defacto choice for smart meters in Britain because of the way the energy industry has developed and been regulated, said Stuart Ravens, an analyst at Ovum.

In Europe, where the companies installing the smart meters also own the power lines that are hooked up to properties, it makes sense for operators to use power line communications (PLC), he explained.

One homeowner from Geddington, Northamptonshire, told Computing he had hoped a smart meter would give him greater insight into his family's energy use and potentially allow him to cut bills.

When an engineer from energy firm Eon arrived to install the meter, he realised that the weak mobile signal strength made the meter useless.

“The engineer said he'd had the same thing from about seven other houses around here,” said Charlie McCormick.

Neither Eon nor the Department for Energy and Climate Change – which is overseeing the national smart meter deployment programme – could provide figures for the number of homes affected by the not-spot problem.

But the inadequacy of mobile coverage is well recognised.

An Eon spokeswoman told Computing: "Our current trials are reliant on SMS technology and therefore do face some limitations. However, we're exploring other options that will offer maximum coverage and the optimum service for our customers."

In yesterday's Autumn Statement, chancellor George Osborne reaffirmed the commitment for ensuring that 99 per cent of the UK would be covered by a high-speed mobile network.

Meanwhile, this summer communications watchdog Ofcom said its tests showed the mobile operator's coverage checkers provided an accurate way for consumers to assess whether they would get decent coverage at home.

That message does not appear to have reached the utility firms.

McCormick told Computing that the engineer who came to his house claimed to have asked his bosses for smart meters that could use the Orange mobile network because the problems with O2's coverage were recognised.

BT, meanwhile, has formed a partnership with communications infrastructure firm Arqiva to explore the deployment of smart meters using low-frequency radio signals.

That may provide an alternative approach to linking up smart meter networks, said Ravens.