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DCC and Vodafone Begin UK Trial of New 4G Energy Smart Meter Upgrade

Wednesday, Jan 15th, 2025 (12:01 am) - Score 4,120
DCC-and-Eon-Install-New-4G-Comms-Hub-for-Smart-Meters-PR-Dec-2024

The descriptively named Data Communications Company (DCC), which manages Britain’s national Smart Meter network(s), recently began their first live customer trials that will see existing Smart Meters in UK homes being upgraded to use Toshiba’s new 4G Communication Hub. Several suppliers, such as E.on and British Gas, are taking part.

The development was actually announced just before Christmas, so we’re playing catch-up today. At present, existing Smart Meters (SMETS 1 and SMETS 2) use a mix of wireless network technologies to communicate how much gas and electricity people are using back to a central database – better known as the Smart Metering Wide Area Network (SMWAN).

NOTE: The government wants all 2G and 3G networks to be switched-off by 2033 (here), with 3G having already been nearly phased out as it has fewer dependencies than 2G (i.e. lots of low power devices still use 2G, which also remains handy as a backup for voice calls).

For example, Scotland and the North of England are largely served by Arqiva’s Long-Range Radio (LRR) wireless network, which operates in part of the 400MHz licensed spectrum band. By comparison, O2’s (Virgin Media) old 2G and / or 3G based mobile network is typically used to cater for meters installed across the rest of England and Wales. The original 15-year O2 smart metering contract, signed 2013, was worth £1.5bn, while Arqiva’s contract for the north was worth £625m.

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However, O2 will start switching off 3G services in April 2025, and they aim to complete that by the end of this year (here). But it will then take “several years” after that before their 2G services can be fully withdrawn, which is partly due to the technology’s use inside existing Smart Meters. According to the Public Accounts Committee (here), an estimated 7 million Smart Meters may need to have their 2G/3G modules upgraded to 4G to avoid a huge connectivity problem.

The Solution

Back in August 2023 we reported that DCC had signed a new 15-year agreement for Vodafone to manage Britain’s national Smart Meter network (here), which would also see the operator working alongside Toshiba, Accenture, CGI and Deloitte to upgrade the network with a cost-efficient 4G Communications Hub solution. Vodafone are providing the 4G network and management, with CGI doing the software and Toshiba the Hub itself.

Just to be clear, as other reports often get this part wrong, under DCC’s programme the meters themselves won’t be replaced, it’s just the communications “hub” (i.e. the “router” that connects the meters in the home to the network). This is still a very big job (nationally speaking), and it requires a site visit to pull off, but it’s also a quicker and simpler job than when a Smart Meter is first fully installed.

The good news is that DCC began an upgrade trial of the new 4G Dual Band Communications Hub from Toshiba a few weeks ago. Energy supplier E.on is understood to have carried out one of the first installations in Staffordshire (England) and many more are due to follow. Around 10,000 Hubs will be installed in the “coming months” as part of DCC’s validation process (mostly by the end of Feb 2025), all involving several energy suppliers.

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Assuming the trial goes well, DCC said they would then begin rolling out the new Hubs as standard from summer 2025. “Given that 2G/3G networks will be phased out by 2033, that gives us and our partners eight years to ensure connection continuity for around 24 million smart meters – a huge challenge, but one we are confident we will achieve,” said DCC.

NOTE: On the surface, this seems to conflict with O2’s stated plan to “completely switch off 3G by the end of 2025“, but it’s worth noting that 3G based Smart Meters should “switch seamlessly” to 2G instead (they’re designed to use both).

Tom Stockwell, Head of Critical National Infrastructure at Vodafone, said:

“We are delighted to collaborate with DCC on this significant milestone. The installation of the first 4G Communication Hubs in UK homes marks a major step forward in future-proofing the smart metering network. We now look forward to working together to support the continued rollout of 4G Smart Hubs to millions more in the future.”

Thomas Cunliffe, COO M2M Solutions Division at Toshiba, said:

“It has been a privilege for Toshiba to design and build the 4G Dual Band Communications Hub for the DCC. We are immensely proud of not only the 4G end-product but also the way the team at Toshiba has collaborated with all the partners within the Programme. Our global supply chain is ready, and we look forward to ramping up production volumes for the mass roll-out next year.”

The 4G upgrade programme however doesn’t just seek to “replicate the old functionality with newer technology” and instead claims to have taken the chance to build something better. “We’ve collaborated … to build these 4G Hubs such that they will deliver direct benefits to energy suppliers and network operators, helping to drive flexibility, and maintain grid balance and stability, and allow deep insight into consumption patterns and network performance,” although it may take a few years to fully realise all that.

However, we should point out that gas Smart Meters also contain a lithium battery, which different sources suggest should last for 10 years or longer, although quite a few people have found them failing far sooner. But you can’t change these yourself, and another engineer visit is required. Suffice to say, there may be some cases where it would be more cost-efficient to combine the 4G upgrade with a battery replacement, yet so far as we can tell that will NOT be happening under the upgrade programme.

One final point to make is that 4G is about as future-proof as 2G and 3G were before it (many people are already on 5G mobile and 6G is just around the corner), thus this won’t be the last time that such a problem emerges. Mind you, all such hardware and systems reach end-of-life eventually.

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PICTURED – TOP: DCC and E.on agents at one of the first customer upgrade sites.
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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and .
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44 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo Phil says:

    I hate smart meter! WATCHDOG in the house as energy and government are tracking us how much usage every half an hour. So I would say NO to smart meter! Get stuff!

    1. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      I doubt the government will be tracking you, I also doubt the energy company will as such, them knowing how much energy I use ever half hour is not a problem, after all they know how much I use from one meter reading to another.

      My problem is that at some point they may be able to force people onto time shift tariffs, put the prices higher in the daytime and lower in the evening. I know some people say if you don’t have a smart meter then you would end up paying the higher price all the time, yes that is a possibility.

      My other problem is the hassle of having them installed and now with this 4G thing, if I had a meter installed now, they would have to gome back and stick a new comunication module onto it. At least it may fix the problems other people are having with their smart meters turning dumb.

      This roll out have been a disasater from the start, it have taken far too long and one muck up to another. Still the offical roll out ends at the end of this year, so the harrasment some people are getting to have a smart meter will either stop or slow down. But in the meantime, expect it to get worse as energy companies have to meet their targets to install smart meters before the end of the year.

    2. Avatar photo A Stevens says:

      Calm down – businesses have had this forever. Nobody knows where your energy goes, just how much you’re using. There are far worse forms of privacy invasion, most of which we willingly lap up (if you have a smartphone, it’s already game over).

    3. Avatar photo Ivor says:

      I believe that’s configurable, and suppliers like Octopus only require half hourly readings if you opt in to their savings schemes. Of course it also makes their website less useful if you aren’t reading at least once a day.

      I’m not aware of the government caring about how much energy you use. Your supplier would love for you to use more – higher profits for them…

    4. Avatar photo DL says:

      Guess what, also your mobile phone supplier knows what numbers you call and for how long…
      This is how billing works.

    5. Avatar photo Nate says:

      And what vital information is it that you think the Government are going to learn about you by knowing how much energy you use every half an hour? Oh, wait. Nothing useful at all. Move along.

    6. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      Although they can’t tell exactly what appliances you are using they can deduce to a certain extent by the pattern of use, for example if they detect a 2-3KW load that lasts for about 5 minutes then they can deduce that you are probably boiling a kettle, likewise if it registers a 8.5-10KW load that lasts for about 10 minutes then they can deduce you were probably using an electric shower. Take a look at this cautionary tale from Australia here:

      https://youtu.be/CqhflXoW-zc?feature=shared

    7. Avatar photo Stewie says:

      The PM doesn’t need to know when you are having a shower or cup of tea pal. No offence there is no logical reason to not have one

  2. Avatar photo MRLeeds says:

    The obvious solution is just use wifi by default and use this as a fall back for cases where wifi isn’t available…

    1. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      I believe security concerns were cited as reasons why this does not happen. It ought to be possible the In Home Display should be connectable to wifi and provide suitable firewalling to prevent security breaches.

    2. Avatar photo Jonny says:

      I think Octopus are/were trying to get certification for submitting meter readings over a Wi-Fi connected device. I have their Home Mini that updates usage in real-time but only the readings sent from the meter can be used for billing.

    3. Avatar photo Martin says:

      Only issue is I don’t think the Octopus device can pair, without the meter getting a command from the DCC saying this MAC address may pair. So if no signal at it may not work

  3. Avatar photo Suffolk says:

    I cannot get a Gas Smart Meter because its on the opposite side of my house to my Electric Smart Meter,
    so there is insufficient signal strengh to talk to each other
    Will this solve my problem

    1. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      Unlikely. I do understand some energy suppliers were trialling booster plugs which worked in the same way as wifi boosters but I only heard that second hand so that may not be correct.

    2. Avatar photo Karen says:

      There is another project called the Dual Band Communication Hub. At the moment, they talk just at 2.4Ghz. With the newer DBCH it communicates at 868Hz so can communicate on a wider distance(and through thicker walls).

      https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/current-programmes/dual-band-comms-hubs/

    3. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      Nope, that is the connection from the gas to the electric meter, different thing altogether, I think it uses Zigbee to connect from the gas to the electric.
      There is a block of flats not far from me, pretty new, about 8 years old and they have the same probelem and they had smart meters installed when they were built. The gas meters are outside downstairs and the electric meters are int he flats. so somone did not have their head screwed on correctly when they did the planning.
      there havce been talk of using external antennas on the gas meters, the problem is thay will be on the outside and where the flats are, they mend up being broken by idiots

    4. Avatar photo Lexx says:

      As long as there is a electric meter nearby and has been configured in mesh mode correctly the gas meters should Be able to pass it along the nearest electric meter (even pass it along the network. Of meters until it gets to the one that had data) unsure if this is limited to Scotland thought

  4. Avatar photo Aw says:

    I also hope at some point the DCC sort out the meters firm/software because mine says i have gas . I DONT HAVE GAS the nearest supply is 2 miles away

  5. Avatar photo Jooles says:

    5G has been available for 5 years, with 6G expected to become available in 2030, making a big fuss about 4G connectivity being “future proof” is short sighted. The Smart Meter roll out has been a disaster that could have been avoided.

    WiFi connectivity could have been included, but if people change ISP and are given a new router, or change the WiFi password, that would cause issues, unless they can update it on the Smart Meter. But it’s still a fallback that could have been included.

    1. Avatar photo 125us says:

      You can’t think of any reasons why having a public internet connected device that controls the gas and electricity usage in a home might be a bad idea?

    2. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      There are too many issues with Wi-fi, it would not be a good idea.
      people changing routers, some people change then more than others change their socks. Security as others have said and the connection issues if there is any will fall onto the consumer.

      Also, some people may not want their smart meter connected to their router.

    3. Avatar photo L8Again says:

      If a foreign actor was able to simultaneously disconnect a large number of electricity smart meters, it could result in significant damage to the Grid which could take months to repair. For this reason, the smart metering system is subject to GCHQ-level security with home networks being kept at arms length. The Octopus Mini bridges this gap by using Zigbee data from the comms hub which is then sent to the Octopus hub from the home network. I cannot see any reason why this cannot be used for billing purposes:

      https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/the-smart-security-behind-the-gb-smart-metering-system

  6. Avatar photo Ben says:

    > However, we should point out that Smart Meters also contain a lithium battery

    Only the gas meter has a lithium battery — the electricity meter is fed from the supply side.

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      Oops, forgot to add that, thanks Ben.

    2. Avatar photo A Stevens says:

      I did wonder! Seems logical that the electric meter would use the very energy flowing through it 🙂

    3. Avatar photo ToyotaAygoDoesntHaveEngineTempGauge says:

      Who pays for the mobile comms electric usage?

  7. Avatar photo Smart Energy Fan says:

    Security concerns are rubbish. There is nothing stopping these guys from using WiFi and VPN technology to transmit readings. Connectivity between the Gas and Electricity Meter is often a problem but then it would not take much to use better wireless tech to get the two to talk a few extra metres apart. With Octopus we don’t have a ‘Home Display’ just a ‘Dongle’ type device that connects to your Smart Meter and your WiFi. So you use the app to see how much energy you use. The dongle can then be placed near your smart meter to connect to that and as long as you also have a WiFi signal at that location as well you are fine.

    The whole system is just a bad design. They need to start from scratch.

    The only reason they are ‘Upgrading to 4G’ is because they are being forced because 3G is going. But I suspect even more people will lose connectivity to their Smart Meters when they move to 4G.

    Half hourly readings are great and if you have an energy generation and storage solution you can really do some amazing things, as well as saving money on your energy bills you can trade and sell energy at peak periods. So go Smart Meters, just ones with decent comms.

    1. Avatar photo Ivor says:

      I am with Octopus and don’t have nor particularly want that dongle thing. I have the IHD and I prefer it because I don’t have to find my phone and open an app to look at it. The dongle method obviously also doesn’t scale up, you couldn’t make it an alternative to 3G/4G/mesh.

      Remember that not everyone has solar panels, batteries, EVs, heat pumps or all the rest of it and won’t be using any of that “advanced” functionality.

    2. Avatar photo Fuzz says:

      You can have both the “dongle” (home mini) and the ihd.
      The home mini acts as a booster for the ZigBee network. I got one to solve the connection problem between my outdoor gas meter and indoor electricity meter.
      The ihd is separate and works as before.
      If you have a Geo IHD then you can connect that to WiFi and view your usage in the Geo app. The choice of IHD supplied seems random.

    3. Avatar photo L8Again says:

      This PhD and Government adviser has a different view on smart meter security:

      https://www.nickhunn.com/how-to-hack-a-smart-meter-and-kill-the-grid/

    4. Avatar photo Martin says:

      I think the main problem with WiFi is that end users could opt to disconnect from the WAN, possibly as the result of something seen on social media.

      Having the meter contain a sim card that connects to the mobile network makes such changes impossible without breaking meter seals

      I think having WiFi/ethernet as a fallback makes sense

      If self disconnection from the WAN isn’t an issue the WAN connection itself could be user changeable. You either use a mobile dongle supplied by electric supplier, or WiFi/ethernet. If supplier needs to they can have end user swap dongle from a 3G one to a 4/5G one

  8. Avatar photo InsiderOne says:

    ‘Accenture, CGI and Deloitte’ in the same sentence as ‘cost-efficient’ is a complete misnomer – all three organisations offer nothing that equates to cost or efficiencies, rather diametrically expensive and insufficient through incomplete requirements, incompetence and tendering the lowest bid with opportunities to ‘top-up’ the cost through renegotiating.

    Whilst a sorely needed project, they’re the wrong partners to work with.

    1. Avatar photo alistairs says:

      Rather pertinent “on the Money” observations. Thanks.

      But will the career politicians be listening?

      Lord help us, no .

      Another gravy train for “expert consultants and no one with any logic or common sense.

      Its like a nightmare clockwork train, ever repeating past mistakes and refusing to learn

  9. Avatar photo Simon Farnsworth says:

    Note that 4G is more future-proof than 2G was, thanks to DSS. It’s possible to have both 4G and 5G signal sharing the same frequencies (with the same coverage), at an efficiency loss to total throughput (4G loses about 25% of the air time to ensuring that 4G devices ignore the essential 5G signalling, 5G loses about 15% of the air time to ensuring that 5G devices ignore the essential 4G signalling).

    It’s expected that 6G will also support DSS with 4G, so that we can keep 4G as a low-throughput highly available network into the 6G era, losing about 25% airtime on the 4G network still, but maybe less lost on the 6G side.

    Vodafone have 10 MHz in B20 (and the ICHs are only going to use B20, not other LTE bands). If they chose to enable DSS for B20, this would make their allocation equivalent to 7.5 MHz (50% more than EE or Three currently have in B20) of LTE if no 5G devices are around, at the cost of making it equivalent to 8.5 MHz of NR if no 4G devices are around instead of the full 10 MHz. I could easily see Vodafone deciding that this is a cost worth paying to keep winning contracts with LTE devices, rather than forcing customers to upgrade to 5G or 6G for small usage levels.

  10. Avatar photo Brian says:

    One of the most important things is to consider the option of an alternative backup method. Inevitability there are mobile not spots, so consider at least one alternative provider. Then for Northern England and Scotland an alternative to Arqiva’s network, which doesn’t provide an adequate signal for a number of properties in my area alone.

  11. Avatar photo Mark Smith says:

    Its staggering that Vodafone isnt using NBIoT technology which they are always pushing for IoT devices and which apparently would be ideal for this use case. Unless of course NBIoT isnt as good as its been made out and doesnt scale well to millions of devices as has been made out.
    NBIoT uses very little power, transmits small data packets, and has a long range.
    the cost of an NBIoT module is far cheaper than a 4G module as well.

  12. Avatar photo tonyp says:

    I wonder who will have to pay for all those engineer visits and new equipment? In my opinion, the only benefactor of smart meters are the supply companies and we know what their agenda is? Who foisted the meters on the public on false premise?

    1. Avatar photo Roger says:

      There are plenty of users who benefit. The smart meter allows me to have a cheap overnight tariff (7p/kWh) to charge my car saving me £thousands/year

    2. Avatar photo L8Again says:

      The £13.6Bn cost of rolling out smart meters is being laid for by consumers via their energy bills. No doubt the cost of new hubs will be laid for in a similar way.

  13. Avatar photo Jonathan M H Rose says:

    So who’s paying for this upgrade, along with future upgrades, the consumer or tax payer again I suppose?!!

  14. Avatar photo MilesT says:

    The big problems with Smart meters is not primarily security or connectivity.

    It’s “self disconnection” after the meter is switched to Pre-pay mode (which can be done remotely, there is a process to be followed but not a barrier to issuing the instruction),

    and also a forthcoming inherent price rise (of a few %) for electricity when the meters are switched from measuring resistive load to reactive load (power factor). Resistive load measurement under-reports power used by electronic devices and motors.

    In edge cases, the fact that the meter enforces the incoming supply limits can also be an issue (you can draw a few amps more than say the 60A supply limit fuse would suggest, but the meter caps the draw to exactly the contracted supply limit–yes another remote commandable item which could be improperly altered by an admin screwup.)

  15. Avatar photo RadioWaves says:

    One of the dumbest things Ive noticed, is that meter cabinets have metal doors that hinder/block the signal. You would think that allthese cabinet doors would be made from plastic or fibreglass by now.

  16. Avatar photo Andrew Mitchell says:

    I still think that they should keep the 2G network alive.
    There are a lot of old devices that use it and like you state, it’s a fallback for voice calls.
    There are also many elderly people out there that use and own basic phones like the DORO phones and many of those are designed for calls only, using only the 2G network.
    A lot of in-home emergency systems also rely on the 2G network.
    Removing the basic fall-back network is a bad idea for a lot of reasons.
    It’s also going to create an immense amount of e-waste as a lot of older devices cannot simply be upgraded to work with 4G/5G.

  17. Avatar photo Ogilvie Jackson says:

    This is good news for those of us in Scotland who cant receive the 400 MHZ SIGNAL from Arqiva .
    That signal was and is a disaster for remote areas !!.
    Now that Vodafone [thanks to the Shared Rural Network]4g is available in most of the remote valleys and glens , this will help enormously .
    Look forward to the rollout !

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