Datamatic to Provide Citywide Automatic Meter Reading System for Goldsboro, N.C.

PLANO, Texas -- Datamatic has been awarded a contract to fully automate the water meter reading operations at the City of Goldsboro, N. C. Under the contract, Datamatic will install a turnkey, citywide system including 15,000 FIREFLY[R] Meter Interface Units (MIUs). Datamatic has been a leading utility technology partner since 1980 and supports nearly 500 customers worldwide.

"We worked closely with Datamatic to develop an aggressive plan to enhance our water conservation efforts," said Goldsboro Finance Director Richard Durham. "Expediting the installation will allow us to take full advantage of the system's capabilities so it can start paying us back immediately. We anticipate big gains in reading efficiency, proactive leak detection and customer satisfaction."

Hardware costs savings was another key reason that Goldsboro selected Datamatic to fulfill its AMR system needs.

"Datamatic was chosen for its universally-compatible FIREFLY technology, which can be retrofitted to the City's existing meters," added Durham. "Other proprietary systems would have required large-scale meter changeouts and would have nearly doubled the cost of the $1.6 million project."

The City of Goldsboro also placed a high value on the AMR system's ProfilePLUS[TM] datalogging capability and the issues it can address. Each FIREFLY MIU stores hour-by-hour consumption patterns for the previous 74 days. This data is invaluable for settling customer usage disputes, leak detection, system optimization, eliminating inefficient off-cycle reading, right-sizing meters and distribution infrastructure.

"We stand behind Goldsboro's commitment to improve their operations, reduce costs, and enhance the quality of their customer service," stated Datamatic CEO Ken Kercher. "Their FIREFLY AMR System will be an important piece in that equation. We're excited that more and more utilities are doing their homework and realizing that a Datamatic solution forms the foundation for their best business case. We look forward to an extremely successful project and ongoing partnership with the City of Goldsboro."

Utilities interested in FIREFLY for water meter applications should contact Datamatic vice president of Sales and Marketing Joe Bridges at [phone].

About Datamatic, Ltd.

Datamatic is a leader in utility data collection solutions. The company's innovative ideas virtually created an industry when it installed the first electronic meter reading system in 1980. For nearly a quarter of a century, Datamatic has been at the forefront in the design, implementation and support of advanced utility meter reading and field data collection solutions for water, gas and electric utilities. Additional information about Datamatic is available by calling Scott Black at [phone] or on the Web at www.datamatic.com.