Licensing 4G, 3G & 2G cellular connected smart meters
Smart meters equipped with cellular technology are supplying real-time information to help us make smart decisions without needing to be anywhere near the meter.
Smart meters make it possible to have greater control over energy consumption. More of these devices are connecting each day and have the potential to improve sustainability of utility distribution grids by reducing losses in energy distribution and reducing new network build-out, as well as helping to conserve resources such as water and natural gas.
Smart meters need access to communications technologies including cellular, which have been developed through open standardization with contributions from thousands of inventors at dozens of companies and research institutions, and it can be both difficult and time consuming for manufacturers to know what technology rights to license, from which organizations, and what’s a fair price for that license.
The Avanci Smart Meter program is the solution for simplifying the entire licensing process, offering manufacturers (and grid operators who brand their own smart meters) the efficient option of a single license for their connected products, covering the essential cellular technologies of all of the licensors currently in the program, plus those who join in future.
Licensees participating in Avanci Smart Meter
Licensors participating in Avanci Smart Meter
Market-driven pricing
Avanci has extensive individual discussions with both patent owners and providers of standards-based products and services to discover terms that can be broadly accepted by a wide array of market participants, reflecting the value that the licensed technologies bring to the products and services in question. The acceptance of the optional Avanci license terms by both licensors and licensees ensures that the terms reflect a fair compromise, and since the same terms are offered to all potential licensees, they are non-discriminatory. This approach ensures that those using the technology in their licensable IoT products have access on simple and transparent terms, and those creating the licensed technologies receive a fair return on their investment.
Simple, fixed prices for smart meters
The royalty rate in an Avanci IoT – Smart Meter license will never increase during the term of the license, regardless of:
- The number of 3G and 4G essential patents added to the license
- How many new licensors join the Avanci Smart Meter program
Avanci IoT provides predictability, transparency and simplicity for Smart Meter manufacturers and grid operators.
Smart meter pricing
Avanci IoT offers these rates, paid once per smart meter, covering the meter’s lifetime.
| Cellular smart meters | |
|---|---|
| 3G | $2 |
| 3G & 4G | $3 |
The above Avanci IoT pricing may change in the future.
FAQs – We’re doing things in a new way
Our focus on making things easy means we’re always here to answer your questions.
The Avanci Smart Meter licensing program defines smart meters as electronic devices that record, generate, transmit, and/or receive information regarding the production, use, flow, or consumption of a utility, such as electric energy, water, or gas, and communicate that information wirelessly, but do not use cellular functionality for any non-utility related purpose.
The 3G license covers the 3G and 2G essential patents of our licensors. Our 4G license covers 4G, as well as 3G and 2G, essential patents of our licensors for smart meters that implement Category 1 (including Cat 1 bis or any other variant of Cat 1) and higher categories of the LTE/4G standard. Smart meters that communicate solely using the NB-IoT and/or LTE-M subsets of the 4G standard are not covered by the program.
Not today, but we are exploring the potential for a 5G program. Contact us if this is of interest to you either as a licensor or a smart meter manufacturer or grid operator.