Veolia and its subsidiary Birdz have selected Orange Business Services to digitise its water services.
The two will digitise their water metering by connecting over 3 million water meters using a LoRa network over the next ten years.
The goal to read more than 70% of the meters remotely by 2027 follows a suceessful 12-month pilot in Toulese.
“Birdz has chosen Orange Business Services to help it make a strategic shift from a technology requiring deployment of a radio network infrastructure to a solution that is open, interoperable and reversible and also a solution which meets the needs of our customers,” according to a statement.
The network currently covers 30,000 municipalities and 95% of the population of Metropolitan France.
The smart water meters project will help reduce consumer bills by giving them access to real-time water usage data which they can use to identify potentials to enhance water efficiency.
For Veolia and Birdz, the project will help improve water management to ensure sustainable management of water resources and to enhance revenue collection and reduce non-revenue water through quick detection of water leaks and fraud.
The LoRa network will allow Birdz to focus on their core business and develop new services.
Birdz will also rely on Live Objects, the object and data management platform of Orange Business Services, to collect the mass of information from the meters.
Frédéric Van Heems, CEO of Veolia Water France, stated: “This project with Orange Business Services illustrates Veolia’s goal to digitalize our businesses and services.