Telit Launches New Wireless M-Bus Module 'ME50-169' to Target Smart Meter Market

New ME50-169 data communication module that supports 169MHz and improves energy efficiency

Seoul, 10 Oct 2011 - Telit Wireless Solutions, Inc. (CEO Jong-Gap Yoon, www.Telit.com ), a leading M2M (Machine-to-Machine) specialist, today announced the launch of its new ME50-169 data communication module that employs wireless M-Bus (European standard for remote measurement of gas, electricity and other consumption meters) transmission technology.

The ME50-169 module supports 169MHz and is suitable for smart metering of gas, water, heating, electricity, etc. Smart metering automatically transmits usage data to the relevant company, which increases the accuracy and transparency of payment amounts and improves corporate customer service and energy efficiency.

Telit’s new product is compatible with the latest Wireless M-Bus standard and fully supports metering at 169 MHz bandwidth, which offers significantly higher performance than 868 or 433 MHz bandwidth. Wireless M-Bus is a standardized radio transmission technology for remote metering in buildings. The data from individual meters is transmitted to the control unit, where it is collected, analyzed and transmitted to the supplier via GSM/GPRS. The ME50-169 module is fully compatible with Telit’s gateway solution GG863-SR, which integrates short-range communication and GSM/GPRS. This enables metering companies to easily install and operate wireless M-Bus solutions on a large scale.

Solutions for reducing power consumption
The M-Bus module, which adopts LGA mounting technology, is the industry’s first 25mW output product, ensuring minimal power consumption, ideally meeting the requirements of smart metering. It also features a low-power ATMEL ATX microcontroller, making it easy to integrate into various systems, helping to reduce commercialization and project costs.

In particular, this module is equipped with an SR tool platform to shorten the development time. The platform provides additional functions such as OTA SW and helps to optimize the solution according to the needs during network installation and management. ME50-169 is pin compatible with Telit's ZE (ZigBee 2007 and PRO stack), NE (Mesh low power), and LE (basic point-to-point broadcast stack) product families.

“The new ME50-169 is a key strategic product for Telit in the smart metering market, a complementary module that will minimize time to market,” said Tony Spizzichino, CEO of Telit RF Technologies. “With its broad compatibility, it can be applied to any wireless M-Bus smart metering project our customers require.”

“The combination of short-range and cellular will be a key technology for future M2M applications,” said Dominikus Hierl, CMO, Telit Wireless Solutions. “Short-range businesses will be able to use radio frequencies to transmit data for free instead of having to buy expensive SIM cards. Companies using Telit’s gateway solutions featuring the ME50-169 to integrate short-range and cellular data transmission will now be able to overcome the limitations of short-range. “We expect to improve energy efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction through low-cost key solutions,” he said.

Smart metering is currently being successfully implemented in Italy, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Australia, and North America, while Germany is planning to install smart meters in all new buildings starting in 2010, with plans to expand the system across the country by 2018. In addition, the British government plans to distribute one million GPRS-based gas metering devices by 2020.