Following the success of connecting 10 million smart electricity meters in India with its mesh connectivity, Wirepas recently brought its proven RF technology to European grids. In this exclusive interaction, we have Teppo Hemiä, CEO, Wirepas, discussing the company’s growth in a challenging market like India, and how Wirepas plans to tap the European market where it will need to contend with migration from old PLC or cellular technology. An interview by Venugopal Pillai.
How has the massive deployment in India validated Wirepas’ RF-mesh technology for applications in other countries?
India has been the ultimate stress test. Operating reliably at multi-million scale, across dense cities and rural areas, shows that the technology is ready for any market. It also helped mature our ecosystem and tools, making rollouts in other countries faster and lower risk.
Wirepas has connected over 10 million energy meters in India with its RF-mesh technology. What would you regard as the key challenges?
Key challenges we see for any very large RF mesh rollout in India are:
Diverse physical environments: Meters sit in apartments, basements, meter rooms, rural huts, metal cabinets and high-rise buildings. This diversity is a challenge for any RF.
Scale of logistics & installation: Million-scale rollouts demand streamlined commissioning and very fast joining/provisioning flows so thousands of meters can be brought online per day with minimal field engineering.
Interoperability & device ecosystem: Coordinating meter OEMs, chipset vendors and HES systems so devices talk the same language. Wirepas Certified platform is addressing exactly this.
Operational reliability & lifecycle costs: Utilities require >99.9% uptime and predictable OPEX. Delivering that at an affordable cost is a driver but also a challenge to demonstrate consistently at scale.
On a technical note, how is RF-mesh technology superior to conventional PLC or cellular technologies?
RF-mesh offers self-healing multi-hop connectivity, excellent indoor coverage and low operating cost. PLC struggles with noisy or complex grid wiring, while cellular often has higher OPEX, high patent fees, network sunsets and inconsistent indoor coverage. Mesh delivers the best reliability-cost balance at large scale.
What is the NR+ standard?
NR+ is a non-cellular 5G standard designed specifically for massive IoT. It brings 5G-grade performance – scalability, reliability and low power – into a decentralized mesh architecture without excessive cost.
As a European company Wirepas has been active in Europe for a long time and we have many partners. Wirepas is the market leader in the Northern Europe. In fact, the Nordics host some of our earliest and largest deployments: for example, our partner Aidon has been running a Wirepas-based smart metering network in the greater Oslo area in Norway for around 10 years already, with more than one million meters in a single network, with an SLA of 99,9%.
Unlike India that has been a largely greenfield market, what challenges do you see in Europe where smart meters with old technology, say PLC or cellular, already exist?
Europe requires migration from existing PLC or cellular systems, so interoperability and staged replacement are key. Regulatory approvals differ by country, and utilities need clear total-cost-of-ownership benefits before switching technologies. However, as the reading interval and latency requirement are getting tougher, NR+’s capability to perform already today sub-second reading interval, set a clear demand.
Has Wirepas already begun engagement with European smart-meter manufacturers / service providers for incorporating RF-mesh?
Yes. We are already collaborating with multiple European smart-meter OEMs and service providers. We have also already demonstrated an NR+ network at multiple trade fairs.
As of now, how many energy meters has Wirepas connected globally using RF-mesh? Apart from Europe, where else do you foresee demand?
We have more than 15 million meters connected globally, led by India. Beyond Europe, we see strong demand emerging in Southeast Asia and selected African markets where cost-efficient, reliable connectivity is essential.
In India, what is Wirepas’ current order book and how many meters do you anticipate to be equipped with RF-mesh by 2030?
We don’t publish order-book figures, but India remains one of our fastest-growing markets. Given national AMI targets, we expect many more millions of meters to adopt Wirepas mesh by 2030, building on the large base already deployed.