Airtel Wins Cellular IoT Solution Mandate for Smart Meters from Tata Power’s Odisha Discom

Communications solutions provider Bharti Airtel (Airtel) has won a cellular IoT solution mandate from TP Western Odisha Distribution Ltd, (TPWODL), a joint venture between the Government of Odisha and Tata Power.
 
Under the contract, the country’s one of the leading mobile operator would power 2 lakh Smart Meters with IoT solution, of which 70,000 would be delivered in the first phase.
 
Commenting on the partnership, Siddharth Talawadekar, Business Head – IoT, Airtel said, “Airtel is delighted to partner with TP Western Odisha Distribution Limited in their attempt to bring best-in-class technology to consumers across the state. As India’s electricity sector embraces changes ushered in by new reforms, we look forward to set an example demonstrating how technology can enable efficient service delivery solutions for companies that are customer friendly. With capabilities of remote network feasibility, advanced diagnostics and a future-ready IoT platform with readily available APIs for seamless integration, we are confident to serve our customers well in this space.”
 
The company said that the connectivity mandate would be augmented with its proprietary IoT platform, “Airtel IoT Hub” which would help the utility track and monitor these smart meters with advanced analytics while maintaining extremely high reliability augmented with telco grade security.
 
Smart metering is one of the most rapidly advancing use cases for cellular IoT in India with several Discoms looking forward to investing in this space to prevent revenue leakage. It is also one of the fastest-growing service lines within the IoT business portfolio for Airtel.
 
The company is working with multiple state utilities in Punjab, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar.
 
Under the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) initiative, the Government aimed to replace 300 million conventional meters with Smart Meters in the next 5 years.
 
“We want to create a customer focussed, technology savvy and future ready distribution company that’s sustainable. We believe that technology can provide us a lot of answers as we step out to create such a company. We are looking forward to deploying smart meters for billing in partnership with Airtel and making best use of their IoT technology to deliver reliable and customer-friendly services,” said Gajanan Kale, Chief Executive Officer, TP Western Odisha Distribution Ltd.