SUEZ, a leader in digital and circular solutions in waste and water services, and Vodafone, a leading technology communications company in the UK, have agreed to a five-year partnership to expand and enhance the range of smart metering network technology with an integrated, seamless, and high-performance solution for water utilities resource management.
The partnership framework is intended to offer an alternative to existing smart water network solutions. It will deliver a cost-effective, vendor-agnostic Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), where the system automatically transmits the data directly to the utility company. The new solution is based on Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network technology.
As water resource management grows increasingly critical in the UK, smart monitoring, and detection systems, such as AMI, are becoming essential tools for water utilities. They help collect real-time data for accurate billing, leak detection, and demand management, improving water conservation and operational efficiency.
Two of the major challenges for water companies when adopting AMI is the availability of low-power networks for smart meter connectivity and the variety of hardware options. In partnership, SUEZ and Vodafone will provide a tailored network design solution, combining Wize technology and NB-IoT to ensure comprehensive, high-performing coverage for each water company, irrespective of geographical characteristics and population density, resulting in an affordable and easy-to-deploy smart metering infrastructure.
Over time SUEZ and Vodafone intend to work with manufacturers to streamline data sets, data transmissions, and remove the need for multiple systems to gather the metering data so it is easier and more cost-effective for water companies to benefit from smart monitoring and detection on their network. Aggregating data from different communications technologies into a single platform will bring the power of SUEZ’s advanced analytics and demand reduction tools (ON’Connect™) to NB-IoT smart metering solutions.
“SUEZ is the European leader in smart water metering thanks to its long-lasting expertise all along the value chain, from meters to data analytics. With this partnership, Wize technology, which has been successfully deployed for over 15 years thanks to its unrivalled performance, is now perfectly complemented by the arrival of NB-IoT. This unique positioning is a major step forward in terms of flexibility and efficiency for our customers,” stated Mitch Donnelly, Managing Director of SUEZ Digital Solutions UK.
Gemma Barsby, Head of IoT, Vodafone UK, said: “At Vodafone IoT we understand that there is not a one size fits all solution to smart metering deployment and work closely with the UK Water industry to find the right solutions for our customers. By partnering with SUEZ, we have been able to develop a simple solution to deliver on their customer needs. By bringing together our market leading IoT Connectivity offering with extensive NB-IoT Coverage and Wize’s compatible hardware, it makes it easier to ensure water companies can benefit from cutting-edge technology.”
NB-IoT is a cellular communication standard developed to enable efficient and cost-effective communication between IoT devices. Wize is a low-power, long-range, and bi-directional radio communication protocol (LPWAN) with 15 years evidence of high performance in smart water metering worldwide.
