A Guide to Long Battery Life, Wide Coverage & Secure Deployments with Cellular LPWA
Utilities today face mounting pressure from aging infrastructure, rising operational costs, and evolving regulations, while customers demand accurate billing and real-time access to consumption data. Smart meters offer a powerful solution, but their long-term success depends on making the right connectivity decisions from the start. Not all networks deliver the same combination of coverage, reliability, and efficiency, and selecting the wrong technology can shorten battery life, limit reach, and compromise security.
LPWA technologies such as LTE-M and NB-IoT, combined with satellite fallback (NTN), provide a proven path for resilient, wide-coverage deployments. Standardized as part of 5G, these technologies are designed to operate for decades, with no planned sunset until at least 2045, ensuring that meters remain functional without costly replacements. Even small differences in transmission power can have a significant impact: a 23dBm module, for example, maximizes coverage and battery efficiency, while lower-power alternatives can halve signal strength and reduce throughput, forcing more frequent maintenance.
Security is an essential consideration. Smart meters are now recognized as critical infrastructure, and regulations such as the EU Radio Equipment Directive (RED) require built-in protections against cyber threats. Hardware-level security, integrated SIM (iSIM) technology, and secure Firmware-Over-The-Air (FOTA) updates help ensure devices remain secure and compliant throughout their operational life.
This whitepaper also includes real-world examples showing how utilities in the U.S. and Europe are deploying these solutions successfully. Water metering in challenging environments has been enhanced through optimized connectivity and low-power operation, while multi-country gas metering projects have achieved consistent performance across diverse regulatory landscapes. These deployments rely on Semtech’s HL7900 module, featuring Sony’s Altair ALT1350 chipset, an ultra-low-power, highly integrated solution that combines LTE-M/NB-IoT connectivity with future-ready satellite support. Millions of Altair-based modules are already deployed globally, providing field-tested reliability and performance that utilities can trust.
By understanding and applying these connectivity principles, utilities and system integrators can design smart metering networks that are efficient, secure, and future-ready. This whitepaper delivers practical guidance to help organizations avoid common pitfalls, extend battery life, achieve full coverage, maintain regulatory compliance, and maximize ROI over the next 10–20 years.