A contractor for Anglian Water is extending its trial of smart meters with the utilities provider.

Infrastructure firm Arqiva has launched a new trial network in Norwich in partnership with technology provider Sensus.

The three-year contract will see Arqiva build and operate the network infrastructure to deploy and monitor around 11,000 smart water meters in and around the city.

Covering both residential and commercial properties, the meters will transmit hourly readings back to Anglian Water to help the company better understand customer water usage habits and to find patterns which may indicate a leak or burst more quickly.

The two-way communication system also allows Anglian Water to remotely reconfigure meters to deliver more frequent readings (up to every 15 minutes).

Customers taking part in the trial will have online access to data on their water consumption, and will receive guidance on how to minimise it.