I have a Y2k build house and the meters are on the side of the house at ground floor level. Both are meant to be real time reading and SMETS as I understand from the meter reader I caught by chance.
Neither of them is able to communicate back to mission control. I get asked for readings constantly which is tedious. They changed the electricity meter after I moaned but the new one was no better. They came back and fitted what I think amounts to an external antenna (longer wire hanging inside box) and no better.
The engineer made in interesting comment. Apparently pretty much all of the boxes fitted use a 3G SIM for cellular to call home. 3G is being switched off shortly. Oops.
Well this is utterly shite, I'd be having a right go at your supplier and your DNO, you are paying for a service which you aren't getting. Don't get fobbed off, raise a formal complaint with your supplier, this means they have to do something about it within a certain timeframe otherwise you can get the Ombudsman involved too. Usually the suppliers like Octopus or OVO who are well into variable rate tariffs are a good deal more responsive to this kind of thing than the wanky cheap suppliers who just offer basic fixed tariffs.
The 3G thing is slightly misleading. Early (SMETS1) meters do indeed use SIMs with the mobile phone 3G network, but SMETS2 uses an encrypted private data network (SMWAN) that will be unaffected by 3G switchoff. Unless you had a very early SM installed, your meter should be firmware upgradeable remotely to SMETS2. There are around 7 million non-upgradeable SMETS1 meters out there at the moment, but they should all be switched out before 3G goes.
