O2 Delves into Energy Market

O2, the UK’s leading provider of mobile phones and broadband, has  signed a multi-million pound contract with G4S Utility Services to  simplify the remote management and monitoring of its national smart  meter network. G4S is one of Britain’s largest providers of smart  metering and field services.

The alliance is O2’s first foray into the smart meter market, which  is poised for significant growth as power utilities deploy residential  smart meters to meet the government’s 2020 deadline.  As part of the  three year, multi-million pound deal, O2 will provide M2M technology,  including approximately 150,000 SIM cards, to connect smart meters  across the UK to G4S’ data centre.

In addition, G4S will use  O2’s SMS gateway to transmit information from its smart meters to its  data centre and back again. Outbound messaging will enable G4S to  remotely monitor the Smart meters, reducing the cost of maintenance and as well as the carbon emissions associated with travel. O2 will provide G4S with the connectivity to run the annual testing of its disaster  recovery process.

http://www.smartmeters.com/the-news/1552-o2-delves-into-energy-market.html