Technology
NB-IoT puts a SIM in the meter and lets the mobile operator carry the coverage. Nothing to build, excellent reach into basements and pits, and a rollout that can start the day the meters arrive. Divako receives the data and treats it exactly like everything else on the platform.
NB-IoT is a cellular network technology built for exactly one job: stationary, battery-powered devices sending small messages for a decade. It runs on the mobile operator’s licensed spectrum, so every meter carries a SIM or eSIM and there is nothing for you to build. Its deep-indoor propagation is its strongest feature, which matters because that is where metering is hardest – basements, pits and concrete chambers.
What you gain in convenience you give up in control. The radio plan belongs to the operator, so a chamber with no signal is not something you fix with a ladder and an antenna: you route around it, or you wait for a rollout you have no say in. Billing has the same shape – a monthly fee per device that runs for as long as the meter does. Across fifty scattered meters that is the cheapest thing on the table. Across fifty thousand it becomes a permanent line in the operating budget.
water + electricity · one in-building wM-Bus network
Estonia's largest arena reads 20+ Apator Ultrimis NEO water meters and OMS electricity meters over a single wM-Bus network, collected by two NB-IoT Lobaro gateways. Potential leaks surfaced within two weeks – and per-event consumption is the goal.
water meters · wM-Bus + NB-IoT + Sensus RF
From manual drive-by collection to continuous remote reading across central Oslo. New Apator Ultrimis and legacy Sensus iPerl meters on one pipeline. The billing team works from daily data, not quarterly spreadsheets.
Questions
A mobile-network standard, carried on the operator's licensed frequencies and trimmed down for devices that sit still and say very little. The meter takes a SIM or eSIM and attaches the way a phone would, which is why there is nothing to mount on a mast and no radio survey to commission.
When the meters are scattered rather than clustered, when a site sits in a basement or pit where propagation is hardest, or when a rollout has to start before any network could be built. Once a district holds enough meters to keep several gateways busy, LoRaWAN usually wins on cost, because the per-SIM fee never stops arriving.
Ten years and more for stationary meters reporting on a normal schedule. The figure depends on reporting interval and signal conditions: a device at the edge of coverage spends far more energy getting each message through than one with a clean link.
Yes, and most municipalities do. Oslo VAV runs more than 5,000 water meters across wM-Bus, NB-IoT and Sensus RF in one pipeline. The network is an engineering choice per area; the data model, dashboards and billing export stay the same.
Your rollout
Tell us where your meters scatter and where they cluster. We'll sketch which sites belong on NB-IoT, which on LoRaWAN, and what it costs either way – in about 30 minutes.
