RTS switch over, Perthshire

I believe he probably mean that if your meter is not communicating with the metering network (DCC) then your tariff - as shown on your meter and your In Home Device - cannot be switched remotely like a fully communicating smart meter can be.

In some circumstances where there is no, or a very poor, connection to the smart metering network (DCC) they are fitting pre-programmed meters and so it would take another engineer visit to to change the pre-programmed peak/off-peak timings (and possibly involve another change of pre-programmed meter).

If the meter is not fully communicating then although the tariff can be changed at OVO and it doesn’t realy matter what the smart meter and IHD say they are* they would not be able to change the peak/off-peak timings remotely if you wanted to switch say from E7 to E10 or vice-versa.
A change to the timings would need an engineer visit in those circumstances.

See what your resolution advisor says of course, but I’d be suprised if it isn’t the same as the above.

Obviously the real solution is to extend the DCC network coverage to cover the whole of the UK.
But that’s not going to happen before RTS is switched off, and realistically may never happen for very remote areas - although technology advances quickly and there are some experiments and trials going on with special communications hubs.
(eg. Connecting some smart meters over broadband, which could then use the recent advances in satellite broadband coverage in remote areas. Starlink Broadband is currently £75 a month https://www.starlink.com/gb/residential but I guess that could be worth it if you can’t get any other broadband where you live. Maybe DCC could come to some arrangement with Starlink just for linking broadband coms hubs where needed?).

*My snart meters and IHD currently show a different tariff from what I an actually paying, that isn’t a problem for me because I look at the kWh I’m using not the £’s, and do my own calculations on costs.
(I could get that corrected remotely because I do have a fully communicating hub, I’ll get round to requesting that it’s updated in my own good time).