Enhancing location awareness of meter readers using mobile gps in a mobile meter reading application

Abstract

With the tremendous growth of the technology, people have more opportunities to use the new technology in their daily life as well as work in the practical environment, the main goal of this paper was to comprehend GSM- GPS relation and how GSM can take advantage of the GPS infrastructure to enhance location awareness of meter readers. Mobile GPS MMRA is a technology mechanism where the Mobile Application is designed to assist field Assistants to record meter readings so as to enhance accuracy in data capture, subsequently upload to the core billing system some of the objective of this paper was to assess the performance of Mobile GPS Receiver at different geographical topology, to conduct comparative study on Mobile GPS Receiver with GPS Receivers (Garmin) and finally to develop a prototype that will show Anomalies when a meter reader fails to visit customer’s connection hence reduce complaints and billing anomalies. This paper sought to investigate the literature review from GSM and GPS relation and GPS functionality in relation to this study, its objective and other related literature review The study adopted descriptive and case study designs where descriptive research design aimed at providing insights into the research problem by describing the variables of interest as well, Using Kericho Water and Sanitation Company Ltd as the case study a target population of 38 from Kericho Water and Sanitation Company Ltd was used to derive 27 respondents being the sample size. Questionnaires and observation sheet was administered to GIS section and the general sample size. The researcher also administered interviews for top managers of the firm. Data analysis was done using Excel and finally the findings were presented in tables and graphs. From the research findings it’s evident that the Mobile GPS MMRA has eliminated billing anomalies related to meter reading. The same has reduced the billing process by approximately 3 days, also from the study Mobile GPS receiver can be enhanced with the use of GSM infrastructure by turning mobile data on.