Survey: Manual meter reading causes unexpected bills for many in Latvia

A survey conducted by research company "Norstat" in cooperation with mobile operator "Tele2" has highlighted the prevalence and risks of manual meter reading in Latvia. Among 1,007 respondents aged 18 to 74, 16% admitted to frequently forgetting to submit their meter readings. This issue is most acute among young people aged 18–29, where 31% forget, compared to only 5% of seniors aged 60–74, who are significantly more disciplined.

Furthermore, 10% of those who submit readings manually said they occasionally make mistakes when entering data. This has a direct impact on personal finances – 12%, or roughly one in eight manual users, have received unexpectedly large bills. Young people, who are also the most likely to forget, are the most frequent victims of such surprises.

Raimonds Janševskis, acting commercial director at “Tele2,” noted that the data sends a strong signal to service providers and property managers about the need to transition to smart meters and automated data reading. He emphasized that Latvia already has the necessary infrastructure, including Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) networks from mobile operators, which enable efficient, low-energy communication with Internet of Things devices. Such devices can operate for up to ten years on a single battery. The survey was conducted in June 2024.