Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
A new Government consultation has revealed that the Data Communications Company (DCC), which is in the process of working to upgrade existing Smart Meters in UK homes with a new 4G Communication Hub (here and here), will in 2026 also launch a Virtual WAN service. This will mean that home broadband can be used to connect premises not covered by their normal wireless network.
Just to recap. The ongoing efforts to switch off older 2G and 3G based mobile networks across the UK will ultimately cause problems for the many Smart Meters installed across the rest of England and Wales, which utilise the same technology via O2 (Scotland and the North of England use a different LRR wireless system). Due to this, Vodafone has already been contracted to help upgrade millions of meters to a new 4G connection.
However, regardless of which wireless system DCC uses to automatically send its energy meter readings, one of the problems with Smart Meters is that the wireless signal strength and coverage isn’t always good enough to reach every single meter. The logical solution would thus to be to develop an alternative method that could connect such meters via your home broadband and WiFi connectivity, but it’s not quite that simple.
One of the issues with using home connectivity as a backup or the main data link for Smart Meters is that it risks exposing Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) to the public internet (e.g. imagine a hostile state hacking meters and disrupting the service etc.). Some halfway solutions, such as the Home Mini device from Octopus Energy, do exist, but they have limits and aren’t part of the main centralised DCC connectivity.
So what’s new?
Back in December 2023 the previous Government’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) started to change their tune by issuing a new consultation. This included proposals to create arrangements whereby communications with Smart Metering Systems installed in premises with no Wide Area Network (“No-WAN premises”) could be established via the DCC through use of the consumer’s own internet connection.
At the start of 2025 this was followed by the current Government proposing to implement such a programme (here), which included proposed architectural arrangements – factoring in the need for tight security – for a new Virtual WAN (VWAN) solution. Just to be clear, the current 2G/3G/4G and LRR wireless data solutions for connecting Smart Meters involves a Wide Area Network (WAN) to link the Communications Hub inside meters with the DCC.
The latest development in this process cropped up yesterday after the Government published another consultation on the need for new energy supplier obligations to drive non-domestic Smart Meter uptake post-2025 (here), which ISPreview noticed included this little piece of interesting and related information.
Extract from the Consultation
Virtual WAN: The DCC will in 2026 launch a Virtual WAN service, so that with consumer consent, broadband can be used to connect premises without WAN coverage, to the national communications network for smart metering. This means that all remaining consumers who do not have a WAN service, but have broadband, will be eligible for smart meters.
This is quite a significant development for home Smart Meters, although previous studies indicated that its target reach will initially be quite limited: “The intent of the [VWAN] arrangements is to support consumers in the 328,000 No-WAN premises across all areas of GB. Our assessment is that, taking into account the need for sufficient internet, up to 95% of these premises would benefit from the [VWAN] solution“.
However, it is also recognised that, over time, we might see this functionality become available as a general backup for the existing wireless communication methods (e.g. 4G) used inside Smart Meters. The government’s consultations appear to indicate that the functionality to establish these VWAN connections may be included in a number of different types of devices, such as In-Home Displays (IHD), Prepayment Meter Interface Devices (PPMID), a stand-alone device, or a Consumer Access Device (CAD). A specialised IHD would seem like a logical and easy solution to deploy it.
The exact details of how this will all be pieced together into a deployable solution – one that is safe and works well enough to be placed into homes – is of course up to the DCC to finalise. But that 2026 date seems – at least to us – to be quite an ambitions target for such a development. Either way, this is one to watch.