Connexin’s LoRaWAN Wireless Network Connects 250,000 UK Water Meters
Fixed wireless and broadband provider Connexin, which is in the process of being acquired by CityFibre (here), has today revealed that their existing Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) network has already connected 250,000 smart water meters across parts of the UK.
Fixed wireless LoRa networks harness only a small slice of lower frequency radio spectrum (usually in the sub-1GHz bands) in order to support relatively slow, but extremely low power, data connections. Such networks tend to run at sub-Megabit speeds (often under 0.05Mbps, but some variants can handle several Megabits), which makes them ideal for linking Internet of Things (IoT) style sensors.
Over the past year or two Connexin has secured major contracts with several leading UK water suppliers – including Northumbrian Water, Essex & Suffolk Water, Yorkshire Water, and Severn Trent Water – to deliver smart water metering using their wireless network.
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The smart meters deliver near real-time data, enabling residents and businesses to track water usage, cut bills, and support initiatives to reduce leakage from the water network. Smart-sensor technology can also aid in flood prevention, minimise damage and emergency response costs, optimise maintenance to lower operational spending, and strengthen climate resilience and public safety with targeted infrastructure insights.
This technology can also enable use cases such as smarter waste management by optimising collection routes and reducing unnecessary trips, improve road safety in colder weather through intelligent gritting that ensures roads are treated where and when they need it, deliver energy savings with smart street lighting that adjusts brightness while maintaining safety and visibility, and support smart transport solutions that help reduce congestion and emissions across towns and cities.
Dan Preece, VP of Water & Utilities at Connexin, said:
“Water is a precious resource which needs to be protected. Smart city solutions are essential for updating our utilities to meet modern needs and to make them more sustainable – by connecting real-world systems to digital intelligence, we enable real-time, insight-driven decision-making and driving integrated regional transformation.”
Connexin’s LoRaWAN® IoT network now connects “almost” 250,000 meters across the country and they have a plan to connect the whole of the UK. Currently compulsory in water-stressed regions, smart metering is expected to become mandatory nationwide following recommendations from the Cunliffe Review, published in July 2025.
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 Linkedin.
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Hope they do a better job of smart metering the water than they have of the Gas & Electricity. Even more so I hope they are more efficient at sorting out problems when failures occur.
If the Severn Trent smart meter is anything to go on it is sporadic with reporting, some days you get zero data followed by a catch up day, etc, etc. Very flaky.
I’m not holding out much hope. Since my water meter was upgraded to a smart one by Connexin I’ve not had a bill or any info on usage from the useless Yorkshire Water, been nearly 5 months now.
So looks like the same unless mess as the energy side, where my gas meter battery failed, so they overestimated my usage rather than recover the usage from the data the backup battery records. To fix they decided to replace both meters and they’ve still not got my Electricity import or export working three months later.
Full marks to Anglian Water, which records usage hourly, thus flagging up unusual consumption patterns to alert customers to potential leaks etc. which is important as East Anglia is a very dry area.
So will Connexin be sharing infrastructure to house this LORaWAN equipment to read smart water meters .Or in fact putting up 15 m telegraph poles across the UK to add to the collection of largely unused smaller telegraph poles it has sold to City fibre . Whilst Connexin and the water companies are convincing us of the need for this infrastructure to identify leaks( leaks that the water companies seem to take a long time to respond to ) it seems the Telegraph was writing it up as a way to charge high end users more for high use of water
I mean, the result will be more accurate bills for both high and low water users and less estimation of usage. It also opens up the door for ‘personalised’ pricing, monitoring of usage over hose-pipe bans and other uses. The tech is great, it’s just how it’s used by big corps that’s the issue.
There’s also nearly zero need to put up new infrastructure. LoRaWAN is an open protocol that allows roaming between networks. If they’ve set this up correctly, they can tap into the many other LoRaWAN networks that cover the UK.
My water meter is indoors, just a normal meter, I doubt very much if it will be replaced with a smart meter.
As for leaks, they say smart meters will help with leaks, when leaks are reported, then maybe it would be a good idea if they were fixed, not left for days on end, certainly in this weather.
Looking at you Dŵr Cymru. Yeah, I know they will not see this, but there you go.
Yeah go on Ad47uk, when they send you a completely normal letter saying your water meter is due for it’s regular ~10 year replacement you be difficult and don’t you dare let them in to replace it!
Also it only helps identify water leaks on the consumer side not their side
@SkyTammy, it is more than 10 years since the meter was installed, I would say over 20 years to be honest, and they have not asked for it to be replaced.
Where the meter is, I doubt a smart meter would work anyway.
I think smart water meters are a great idea to check usage.
I have checked on the Yorkshire Water website and the HU postcode area that I live in is scheduled for Summer 2029 so about a 4 year wait…
Mine is not a smart meter, but I can check usage, granted it is a bit easier than some as mine is indoors. The thing is, once you get a water meter, your ways of using water changes, well mine did. You use what you need and that is it.
I don’t need a smart meter of any type to keep an eye on what I am using.
I do think everyone should have a water meter, not so much a smart one, but just something so they have to pay for the water they use. They may think differently and stop running sprinklers to keep their lawn green in very dry weather.
I’m in the Essex and Suffolk water area and have had one 6 months or so.
It’s excellent, can see half hourly usage after 24 hours.
App alerts you if you have a leak like condition (i.e water flowing 24/7), the access to data is appalling… You get to see see the charts and nothing much else, so whilst the additions are excellent, it could be improved.
I’ve been told they intend the network they’ve built to handle other traffic, not just water meters (raised some questions as part of the parish council)
Real-time…..I think not. Based on my NWL meter it takes at least two days to provide data. Today is Tuesday 1.0 pm nothing for Sunday yet . Also a lot of estimated readings and it takes more than 7 days if the readings are ever populated with real data. App keeps telling me I have a leak based on estimated readings then says my usage has increased. I read the numbers on my meter to get the real usage and will check this with bill.
Agree with Dialup, updating is spasmodic to say the least. Today is Thursday…Tuesday data missing 8 hours which are estimated now telling my usage has increased…based on previous showing it will take 7 days to update the estimated data..
Been on holiday for a few days. Checked while I was away a few times,leak warning disappeared. No data showing since last Saturday, estimates for Sunday and part of Monday. Filled kettle a few times and leak message returned. Best thing I think is remove the app from my phone and read meter once a week like I used to. Real-time or near real time……mmmmm