District water metering made simple

All three networks, one platform. The best meter for every place, whatever it speaks.

Metbox platform

1386m³

    • The widest choice of meters.
    • Cheapest meters, cheapest gateways.
    • Battery gateways need no power socket.
    • Drive-by backup if a gateway stops.
    • Short range. Wide areas need many gateways.
    • More gateways, more to keep running.
    MoreWireless M-Bus
    • Plenty of meter models to pick from.
    • Long range. A town takes a few gateways.
    • Every gateway needs mains power & a good location.
    • No drive-by backup. Someone reads the dial.
    • A blind spot costs a whole extra gateway.
    MoreLoRaWAN
    • No gateways to install or maintain.
    • Signal reaches cellars, chambers and wells.
    • Few meters. Ultrasonic only.
    • The most expensive meters.
    • Every meter needs a paid SIM.
    • Reports once a day to save battery.
    • Alarms reach you a day later.
    MoreNB-IoT

Best platform for district water metering

  • Meter management

    Every meter tracked from the store to the wall and out again: installation, replacement and removal, with photographs and signed digital acts on the record.

  • Loss detection

    The main meter against the sum of the flats, district by district, so unbilled water is a number on a chart rather than a surprise at the end of a quarter.

  • Alarms

    Leak, burst, backflow, tamper, low battery and temperature, raised as the reading arrives and sent on to whoever is on call.

  • Reporting & billing

    Consumption reports per meter, building or district, and a billing export your system already understands: CSV, XLSX or the REST API.

See the platform

The most common mistakes in district remote metering

  1. Vendor lock-in

    Meters and platform sold as one product. Adding another manufacturer later is expensive, and often not offered at all.

    Instead: Buy the platform and the meters separately, and get the best deal on each.

  2. Locked NB-IoT meters

    The meter reports to its supplier's platform and nowhere else. That is a ten year subscription, not a purchase.

    Instead: SIM and subscription with the meters. Platform on its own.

  3. No encryption keys

    Wireless readings are encrypted. Without the keys, the meters you own turn into noise the day you change platform.

    Instead: Take the keys with the delivery and keep them yourself.

  4. Pulse outputs

    A pulse counter counts what the reader thought it saw. Miss one and the total drifts from the dial for good.

    Instead: Pick meters that send a number: OMS, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, M-Bus.

Cutting non-revenue water

Water that is pumped and never billed is the largest running cost in a district network. There are three places to catch it, and they work best together.

  • 01

    At the meter

    Some meters listen to the pipe themselves. An ultrasonic meter with a leak sensor built in flags a leak, a burst, backflow or a frozen pipe alongside the reading, with nothing extra to install. Several manufacturers now build them.

    For example, the Landis+Gyr W350.

  • 02

    In the platform

    The main meter against the sum of the flats, district by district. The difference is the loss, and the platform watches it continuously: night flow that never falls to zero, a meter that suddenly doubles, a balance that drifts week by week. Alarms go out as the readings arrive.

  • 03

    On the pipe

    Where no meter can see, clamp-on ultrasonic sensors listen to the pipe itself and report a leak or the shock of a burst. They arrive in the same platform as the meters, on the same map.

Turn drive-by into real remote reading

Nobody walks a district. Somebody drives it, and it is still a person collecting numbers one street at a time.

Usually there is nothing to replace. A wireless M-Bus meter sends the same telegram whether a van collects it or a gateway does, so the rounds stop and the meters stay exactly where they are.

Drive-by rounds

Gateways on site

A van drives the district for the numbers

Readings arrive on their own, every day

Readings dated whenever the van came past

Every billing date covered, to the day

A burst is found on the next round, or by the cellar

Leak, burst and tamper alert as they happen

Losses are a number nobody can explain

Main meter checked against the sum of the flats

Readings exported, tidied and merged in Excel

Billing export straight out of the platform

Every round costs fuel, hours and a person

Installed once, with no rounds left to pay for

Water meters, and what they speak

Every water meter we read over one of the three networks. Read down the column you are leaning towards.

All water devices

34 devices

DeviceWireless M-BusLoRaWANNB-IoT
ADD GrupADRWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: supported
ApatorApator 08Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ApatorApator 162Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ApatorUltrimisWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ApatorUltrimis NeoWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: supportedNB-IoT: not supported
AxiomaQ400Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
AxiomaQALCOSONIC W1Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: supportedNB-IoT: supported
BMETERSHydrodigit M1Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
BMETERSHydrodigit S1Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
BMETERSIWM-TX5Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
BMETERSRFM-TX1Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
DiehlDME 07Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
DiehlHydrusWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
DiehlIZARWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
EngelmannFAWWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
EngelmannWaterStar MWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
JanzJM600eWireless M-Bus: not supportedLoRaWAN: supportedNB-IoT: not supported
JanzSmartIOWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: supportedNB-IoT: not supported
KamstrupFlowIQ 2200Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
Landis+GyrW270Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: supported
MaddalenaElecto SJ IIWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
MaddalenaElecTo SonicWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: supportedNB-IoT: supported
MaddalenaRadio EVOWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
QundisQ Water v2Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
SensusiPERLWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
TechemMK Radio 3Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
TechemMK Radio 4Wireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
WehrleModularisWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ZennerIUWS B.OneWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ZennerMinomessWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ZennerMTKD-MWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ZennerPDCWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ZennerZenner 0BWireless M-Bus: supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: not supported
ZylxusZylxusWireless M-Bus: not supportedLoRaWAN: not supportedNB-IoT: supported

A model missing here is usually one nobody has asked us for yet. Send it over and we will tell you what it takes to read it.

How it works

From field meter to billing-ready data

One secure path from your water meters to the systems your teams already use.

  1. 1

    Meters

    Many brands and communication technologies - homes, apartments or commercial sites.

  2. 2

    Gateways collect readings and send them securely over 4G/LTE, buffering if the connection drops.

  3. 3

    Platform

    Readings arrive validated and structured - ready for dashboards, reports and analytics.

  4. 4

    Your systems

    Export CSV/XLSX or connect via REST API to existing billing and management systems.

Why Metbox for water

Built for the way water utilities work

Interoperability

Many meter brands, one platform

Water infrastructure rarely has just one meter type or one manufacturer. Metbox is built to work with existing, mixed infrastructure.

  • 100+ supported meter and device models
  • Wireless M-Bus, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT & wired protocols
  • No lock-in to a single hardware vendor
View compatibility
mixed meter brands connecting into one platform
Automated reading

Automated water meter reading

Gateways collect readings from supported meters and send them securely to the platform over 4G/LTE. If communication drops, data is buffered locally and sent once restored - so readings aren't missed.

  • Turn walk-by & drive-by routes into fully remote reading
  • Local buffering protects against gaps in data
  • Frequent readings and fast alerts for leaks or anomalies
See connectivity
gateway sending readings over 4G/LTE
One data layer

One secure layer for billing & integrations

A structured data layer between field meters and business systems - viewed in dashboards, exported as CSV/XLSX, or connected by API to billing, accounting and analytics.

  • Secure transmission from device to platform
  • Role-based access, traceability & GDPR-ready management
  • REST API and CSV/XLSX for existing business systems
Metbox platform - water consumption dashboard
Outcomes

What water utilities gain with Metbox

Reliable operations

Less field work, fewer errors

  • Reliable remote readings
  • Less manual field work
  • Fewer reading errors
  • Reduced missed-meter cases
  • Billing-ready data
  • Better control across houses, buildings & service areas

Data you can act on

Centralised, validated, integration-ready

  • Centralised meter data management
  • Validated historical data
  • Consumption reports and analytics
  • CSV/XLSX exports
  • REST API integration possibilities
  • Role-based access and auditability
  • Data prepared for billing and decision-making
Hardware & platform

What you need to get water meters online

Metbox ProGateway

Metbox Pro

wM-Bus gateway for sites without a permanent power connection.

145.00 €View product →
Metbox Pro DINGateway

Metbox Pro DIN

wM-Bus gateway for continuous reading with a 230V mains connection.

145.00 €View product →
Software
Software

Dashboards, reports, alerts and API integrations - the secure layer between meters and business systems.

SaaS subscriptionExplore platform →

Ready to automate your water meter reading?

Talk to the Metbox team about your network, buildings and meters - and see how fast remote water metering can be up and running.

Contact MetboxExplore the platform