Dallas, TX and Liberty Lake, WA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- August 19, 2008 - Communications provider AT&T and Itron Inc. have announced that Itron's OpenWay advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) solution will be delivered over AT&T’s high speed cellular network to give utilities two-way communications for access to data from meters throughout their systems.

The combination allows utilities to collect, measure and manage energy usage and provide a reliable and affordable supply of power without having to build and operate costly, proprietary communications networks.

AT&T and Itron will jointly market the solution to utility companies in the United States. Their collaboration will bring a host of benefits to utility companies including providing the ubiquitous coverage required for AMI data transmission, giving utilities the timely data needed to promote energy management, demand response, detect outages and deliver more accurate billings     statements to customers, and creating the potential to offer time-based pricing, prepaid power options and the ability to remotely switch service on or off. In addition it will allow utilities to self-manage the deployment of AMI and smart grid devices through AT&T's ordering, activation and management systems for high volume customers.

OpenWay by Itron is a new generation, open architecture advanced metering solution that provides full two-way communication to enable a utility's smart grid as well as a built-in communications pathway to the meter or other smart grid device that is fully compliant with the American National Standards Institute C12.22 protocol for transport of device data over a network.

AT&T offers a wide range of strategic mobility products and services to the utility industry, including wireless solutions for field service workers, outage detection and remote monitoring.