At present, the intelligentization rate of water meters in our country is not high, 90% of the current water meters are still manual meter reading, and manual meter reading has many drawbacks. According to Forrester, an American research institute, the industrial value brought by the Internet of Things will be 30 times greater than that of the Internet, and the Internet of Things will become the next trillion-level information industry business. Under the Internet of Things technology, smart water meters rely on the current rapid development of technology in the Internet era. Compared with traditional water meters, smart water meters and systems have incomparable advantages, which are mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) Remote control; 2) Water price measurement; (3) Electronic billing; (4) Data platform; (5) Flexible management; (6) Abnormal consumption analysis; (7) Entrusted escrow. At the same time, national policies and the government promote smart water services and stepped water use, and smart water meters are ushering in new development momentum. In order to implement the tiered water price policy, accurate measurement, accurate timing and accurate billing of the scientific mechanism of tiered water prices, and reasonable collection of water charges for each water section are the key to the implementation of the tiered water price mechanism, which requires the support of smart water meters.

The water meter industry is constantly evolving and upgrading, and wireless remote water meters are the future trend.

Under the joint promotion of smart water services and step water use, water meters in my country have evolved from non-smart mechanical meters to IC card smart meters and photoelectric direct-reading smart water meters that have become the main market products, and finally transition to wireless remote water meters. Mechanical meters are more troublesome for residential quarters with a certain scale, and residents are scattered in different units. The prepaid smart water meter with IC card has enabled the new management mode of "pay first, then use water" to realize the electronic and intelligent water management. The photoelectric direct-reading water meter uses photoelectric direct-reading technology to read the word wheel data. Compared with the traditional pulse meter, it can reduce the reading error to zero, and usually does not need power supply. It only needs to be powered when reading the meter or the valve. The wireless intelligent water meter reading system is a new and advanced meter reading method, which integrates the most advanced computer and communication technology. In the current industry and daily life, short-range wireless communication technologies mainly include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared, UWB, ZigBee, etc. The common shortcoming is that the transmission distance is short, which limits its wider application. Facing the rapid growth of the scale of connection between things and things, there are multiple technical standards for low-power wide-area networks dedicated to the Internet of Things, and LoRa, Sigfox and NB-IOT have come to the fore.

Domestic and foreign smart water meters have been deployed for many years, and the future market will be huge.

With the increasingly serious global water shortage problem, in order to reduce water waste, improve management efficiency, and save labor costs, smart water meters are being widely used. The main markets for this technology are concentrated in developed regions led by North America and Europe. In developing regions, the application of smart water meter equipment is generally still in the pilot stage. In the domestic market, step water and smart water are jointly promoted, and smart water meters will grow explosively. The smart water meter industry is expected to move towards an oligopolistic competition in the future, and large water meter companies are expected to stand out and continue to enjoy the industry's highly prosperous development. The global smart water meter market has grown steadily in recent years. In 2012, the total market size exceeded 3 billion U.S. dollars, and it is expected to maintain a compound growth rate of more than 10% within five years. In 2017, it will achieve a total revenue of more than 5 billion U.S. dollars. The smart water meter is calculated by about 350 million urban users, and the potential market capacity may reach 100 billion yuan.