Why can't my supplier resolve my smart meter Wide-Area-Network (WAN) signal issues?

3G Range Extenders probably wouldn’t have any effect. The Cellular Comms used in the Southern Territory run in a different way to regular devices and are more heavily locked down.

It can only be achieved using approved equipment.

OK, so where/how do you get ‘approved’ equipment?

The best way of that is via your supplier, through their customer service team. They can help with the arrangements.

OVO is supplier - blank drawn there, they say there is nothing they can do if the extended antenna doesn’t get a signal - this is the 30cm long thing on a somewhat useless 20cm wire.

There is no ‘specialist’ kit, unless you know something different?

Are O2 using non standard 3G, why wouldn’t a simple range extender work?

Well, in edge cases there is the T3 Aerial, but it’s rare and has to be specially requested from DCC.

I’ll ask about where those are up to. It’s private infrastructure, so you can’t just use any old extender.

Just researched the T3 options and happy the have one if that works. No one in OVO customer services seems to know anything about them.

Do you know who I speak with or what i ask for?

Also spoken to secondary metering provider that installs external aerials for exactly these situations. They said all aerials are going to work with coaxial cables. Having work down now and running a coax from outside to meter room wouldn’t cost anything, do you it would be good to have it there for when/if I could get agreement for a T3?

This is all stuff I’ll have to tag-team with someone at OVO who knows more than me about.

Please bear with me - getting permission to talk to that person and/or get the info from them may take a while.

OVO can do no more. This is the procedure for problematic locations: smartme.co.uk. Sadly, DCC aren’t known for their speed in dealing with cases like this.

I suppose your original meter was installed long before smart ones came along; nobody thought that wireless connectivity was a consideration back then. You have a couple of options: (a) grin and bear it until such time as DCC get you sorted out, submitting readings manually meanwhile, or (b) ask OVO to move your meter to a more wireless-friendly spot. That won’t be without significant cost to you, with the possibility that the distributor would have to be involved as well. 

The DCC wireless network isn’t the same as a mobile phone one. While the fact that you have good mobile connectivity to an O2 mast is a positive sign, there’s no knowing whether the DCC signal would use the same mast; O2 put the antennae for DCC where DCC tell them to. That’s why connectivity problems like yours become DCC’s headache. 

OK, so I have the T2 aerial left installed.
Step one should be that I make sure OVO have actually registered the connection failure with DCC?

Then who do I chase, is it OVO, or can I hassle DCC directly?

You can’t go directly to DCC. Try https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com though - that might work.