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Wireless Networking Cuts Utility Costs by 25 Percent
[October 26, 2004]

Wireless Networking Cuts Utility Costs by 25 Percent

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Wireless networking will drive adoption of advanced automated meter reading that reduces water, gas and electricity costs by up to 25%, according to a research study by ON World. With utility costs rising by as much as 10% per year, conservation is becoming increasingly important.


"As utilities adopt more advanced real-time two-way systems for AMR, they are increasingly benefiting from private fixed wireless networks," says Dr. Charlie Chi, a senior analyst with ON World.
Advantages of Fixed Wireless Networks
Fixed networks encourage conservation by giving utilities, businesses and consumers more information about energy and water usage to reduce costs, encourage conservation and support outage management and load shifting. Because it offers the best overall return on investment, ON World believes fixed wireless networks will grow the fastest of all AMR networking solutions over the next five years. ON World projects that fixed wireless endpoints will increase 52% annually until 2010 when 33 million units will be shipped worldwide.
Advantages include:
1. Lowest overall cost -- Does not require expensive PLC bypasses
2. Faster -- Bandwidth now abundant
3. Private and more secure than public wireless solutions
4. Safest, most flexible and scalable installation

Emerging Wireless Solutions for AMR


Today, there are an increasing number of companies transforming the utility market with fixed wireless systems. These include AMR Systems, Advanced AMR, Cellnet, Eka Systems, Elster Electricity, StatSignal/Landis+Gyr and Tantalus Systems.
ZigBee Finds a Home in RF Submetering
The first standards based wireless AMR solution will likely be offered by WellSpring through an alliance with ZigBee startup, Ember Corp., that will be targeted at the rapidly growing submetering market. WellSpring claims that their solution can cut water usage as much as 26 percent. ON World forecasts that 80% of all RF submetering units shipped in 2010 will be ZigBee based.
ON World's Market Dynamics study, "Wireless AMR & Submetering," is based on interviews with the leading OEMs, AMR solutions providers, systems integrators and component suppliers. The study includes six-year projections on the wireless AMR and submetering markets and in-depth profiles on 46 companies.
More information is available from: http://www.onworld.com/

About ON World Inc.:

ON World Inc. provides world class business intelligence on emerging wireless technology markets. Customers include Fortune 1000 companies, service providers, venture capitalists, and startups worldwide.
For further information, please contact Mareca Hatler of ON World, +1-888-312-2619, [email protected].
ON World Inc.


CONTACT: Mareca Hatler, ON World, +1-888-312-2619, [email protected]


Web site: http://www.onworld.com/

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