Beyond the Module: Fibocom and GridCrest Showcase Smart Meter Collaboration at Enlit Europe 2026

VIENNA, Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Fibocom, a global provider of wireless communication modules and solutions, joins GridCrest Technologies, an India-based provider of integrated smart metering solutions, to showcase the ME260 single-phase smart electricity meter at Enlit Europe 2026. GridCrest has adopted Fibocom's LE270-IN and L610-IN LTE Cat.1 bis modules as alternative connectivity options, with Fibocom also providing customized engineering support throughout product integration and testing.

GridCrest offers a comprehensive portfolio covering smart meters, communication technologies, utility software platforms, and operational services. Backed by the engineering and manufacturing capabilities of Kaynes Group, the company develops smart metering solutions for utilities, supporting the modernization of electricity metering infrastructure.

For smart meter manufacturers, selecting a cellular module is only part of the development process. Reliable communication also depends on compatibility between application software and module firmware, consistency during production, and proper integration with mobile operator networks. These requirements call for close technical collaboration across different stages of product development.

During the ME260 integration process, Fibocom worked closely with GridCrest to address several engineering challenges.

During production testing, GridCrest encountered a compatibility issue between the application software and module firmware. Through multiple rounds of testing, Fibocom's engineering team traced the issue to a mismatch between the application and its corresponding Open Base firmware baseline, and worked with GridCrest to resolve it.

During operator-network testing, duplicate PDN connection requests were identified, resulting in additional network traffic. Fibocom worked closely with GridCrest and the operator's IoT team to trace the issue to the application's API usage logic, providing technical guidance on network attachment and PDN request handling. Fibocom also delivered customized network status indication functionality to meet GridCrest's specific requirements.

These efforts demonstrate the importance of engineering expertise in smart meter development, particularly where application software, cellular connectivity and operator networks must work together.

Designed for residential electricity metering, GridCrest's ME260 supports energy measurement, load profile recording, event alerts and anti-tamper functions. With Fibocom's cellular modules, metering and event data can be transmitted over mobile networks to utility head-end systems (HES), supporting remote meter reading and subsequent meter data management.

Both the LE270-IN and L610-IN support major LTE bands used in India, offering different connectivity configurations. The LE270-IN features a compact design and optimized power consumption, while the L610-IN supports both LTE and GSM connectivity. This flexibility allows GridCrest to select modules based on meter design and network requirements.

"Successful smart meter integration involves much more than choosing the right connectivity hardware," said Madan Mohan, CEO of GridCrest Technologies. "Fibocom's engineers worked closely with our team to troubleshoot software integration issues, support production testing and address operator-network requirements. Their responsiveness and technical expertise have been valuable in bringing our product forward."

"Smart meters are designed for long service lives and deployment across widely distributed locations. This places specific demands on software compatibility, production consistency and network interoperability," said Kony Li, General Manager of Fibocom MTC Business Unit. "Our experience in smart metering goes beyond wireless module development to understanding how connectivity performs throughout the device integration process. We will continue working closely with energy industry partners to turn this engineering expertise into practical solutions for their evolving requirements."

About Fibocom

Fibocom, founded in 1999, is China's first wireless communication module company listed on both the A-share and H-share markets. Fibocom leverages wireless communication and artificial intelligence as its core technologies to provide integrated hardware and software solutions that empower industry applications. These solutions accelerate the transformation from "Connect Everything" to "Intelligent Connectivity" across diverse industries.

Fibocom's one-stop solutions encompass cellular communication, AI, automotive, and GNSS modules, as well as AI toolchains, supporting industry-side and mainstream large model integration, and providing AI Agent, global connectivity, and cloud services, driving the digital intelligence upgrades in industries such as robotics, consumer electronics, low-altitude economy, intelligent transportation, smart retail, and smart energy.

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Beyond the Module: Fibocom and GridCrest Showcase Smart Meter Collaboration at Enlit Europe 2026

Why fraud prevention in B2B payments starts with understanding the business, not just the transaction

BANGKOK, Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, in response to the growing threat of cyber-enabled fraud, Bill Deng, Founder & CEO of XTransfer, has shared Three Lessons from the Front Line. Financial inclusion has been a quiet success: the World Bank's Global Findex 2025 puts account ownership at 79% of adults, up 28 points in a decade. But the Global Anti-Scam Alliance reports nearly 60% of adults encountered a scam in 2025, and a quarter lost money. Faster rails speed up legitimate and fraudulent payments alike. The Bangkok Blueprint, launched by the IMF, World Bank Group and Bank of Thailand at the 2026 Annual Meetings, frames the response correctly: cyber-enabled fraud is an ecosystem problem no single institution can solve alone.

A framework sets the direction; it does not tell an operator what to do when a payment looks unusual. Three lessons from the front line.

Speed is not the same as judgement

Automation has transformed screening. It absorbs volume no team could handle and flags anomalies in seconds. But consistency is not understanding. A model can say a transaction deviates; it cannot say whether that reflects a new customer, a seasonal order-book shift, or a fraud typology never seen in training. In B2B payments, the payment message carries almost none of the commercial history behind it: the inquiry, purchase order, shipment, invoice. Reading the underlying trade is often what separates an unusual but legitimate payment from a suspicious one. Frontline teams who know how a small exporter operates belong inside the control environment.

Share the principles; calibrate the controls

Asia-Pacific is the best test bed precisely because it is heterogeneous: regulation, rails, customer behaviour and fraud patterns differ sharply across markets. Exporting one operating model is a category error. What travels is a common language, shared risk principles and typology frameworks describing how schemes are structured, not one prescribed technical response. Controls must be calibrated locally. A multi-market compliance footprint earns its keep here: operating under several regulators forces you to separate what is universal from what is merely habitual.

Intelligence should move as fast as fraud

Fraud techniques migrate; a pattern seen in one corridor reappears, adapted, in another. If every institution treats detection as a private asset, everyone downstream starts late. Regulator-supervised, privacy-protecting sharing can turn one market's signal into another's early warning, without identical rules everywhere. More connected SME payment infrastructure helps too: today it is fragmented among banks, providers and jurisdictions, each seeing a narrow slice. The chain rarely starts in finance at all; it may begin on a social platform, marketplace or telecom network. Institutions, platforms, regulators and law enforcement each hold a fragment, which is why public-private engagement is not a courtesy but the mechanism of trust.

Access will keep expanding; whether it endures depends on trust, the cumulative result of fast technology, experienced people, controls that fit their market, and institutions willing to share what they learn. For those building infrastructure for small traders, the obligation is simple: make the safe path the easy path. Security that excludes legitimate users defeats the inclusion it protects.

The author first set out related views in a WEF Financial and Monetary Systems discussion (23 October 2026). https://www.weforum.org/stories/financial-and-monetary-systems/two-ceos-discuss-technology-enable-financial-inclusion-preventing-fraud

This is an original expansion for XTransfer's own channels; it does not reproduce or adapt the WEF text. Views are the author's own, not those of the WEF, IMF, World Bank Group or Bank of Thailand. XTransfer contributed private-sector experience to the Annual Meetings' digital safety discussions; no endorsement is implied.

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Building Digital Trust Where Trade Happens