Smart meters to cost the UK billions: 2G switch-off means replacing 12-13 million
Between 12 and 13 million UK smart meters could stop working properly when 2G and 3G networks are switched off by 2033, and replacing them all is likely to cost around £4 billion ($5.3 billion).
Key points
- When 4G technology reaches the end of its life, (which isn't likely to happen until the 2040s, and there is no planned date) the UK's smart meters will need to be replaced once again, the report asserts.
- Smart meters have long been a controversial topic thanks to the British government's botched rollout of the technology; they were supposed to be fitted into 80 percent of households by 2020.
- The other is for an estimated 7 million older, first-generation (SMETS1) meter installations, which have the cellular comms hard-wired in, so the whole meter typically needs replacing.
The first covers newer, second generation (SMETS2) meters, where only the communications module needs swapping out, but even this is likely to cost £1.3 to £1.4 billion (c $1.7 to $1.9 billion) before the hardware cost of each new hub is even factored in.
Additional details
- BT/EE will begin closing its network from May 2029, VMO2 will start the same summer, and Vodafone aims to switch off in spring 2030.
- Now, a report from connectivity biz Wirepas, "The European Connectivity Trilemma," shows that it isn't just Brits who have problems, but that other European countries also have their share of smart meter issues and that no two countries have adopted the same approach.
- However, the government had already announced measures to phase out 2G and 3G networks by 2033 several years earlier, back in 2021, so it was known that any meters being fitted would have a limited lifespan.
- While some of these older meters would naturally have been due for replacement as part of normal asset renewal cycles, the cell network shutdown makes the replacement program unavoidable and dictates when much of the expenditure must occur.
- We asked the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which oversees smart meters, for comment.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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