Founded in 1952, Società Impianti Metano is a leading Italian provider and distributer of gas utility services. The company runs more than 40 gas plants in Italy while serving over 111.000 customers nationwide. Società Impianti Metano is part of the SIME Group which carries out the gas distribution and measurement activities.

By Italian law, gas meters must be compliant with a minimum of functional requirements, such as remote reading and remote management. Società Impianti Metano is commissioned with the massive replacement of gas meters in Italy.

To fulfill these regulatory needs and to be able to remotely monitor the gas meters, the company trusts in 1NCE mobile cellular IoT connectivity for a quick and easy rollout.

Background

With the publication of AEEGSI Resolution 651/14 / R / gas, the Italian Authority for Electricity, Gas and the Water System (now named ARERA, Autorità di Regolazione per Energia Reti e Ambiente) introduced the obligation, that gas meters must be equipped with the functionality of remote reading and management. This has resulted in a massive exchange of old gas meters, which is now being rolled out successively in Italy. The authority’s responsibility is to also ensure the usability of the service, which must be homogeneous throughout the Italian national territory, as well as maintaining the transparent system and guaranteeing the protection of the service user.

Challenge

Reliable connectivity in a diverse environment is tricky to guarantee. Many variables, such as location, building characteristics, the overall environment play a vital role when it comes to connect device such as smart meters with the Internet of Things. Mobile cellular connectivity has proven to be a trusted and well-developed technology to solve most of these problems. However, the available mobile technology differs depending on the installation area.

1NCE Solution

The 1NCE IoT Lifetime Flat delivers secure and reliable IoT connectivity via multiple network operators seamlessly over all available cellular technologies such as 2G, 3G, 4G, NB-IoT or more and can therefore be used flexible in many different environments. With its pre-paid pricing model of only 10 Dollars for 10 Years it fits perfectly into any business case and can be scaled easily from small numbers up to many thousands. The implementation of the pre-activated SIM cards is easy and free additional functions such as OpenVPN and a sophisticated device management platform make it a perfect choice wherever a fast rollout and data security play a vital role.