AT&T Helps Cities Save Water with New Technology

AT&T,* IBM and Mueller Water Products have developed a new solution to help cities save water. The solution uses Internet of Things (IoT) technology that can be installed quickly to help cities manage water and prevent leaks.

The companies are sharing results from recent trials at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Tech Expo today. The trials took place in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Communities everywhere are struggling to save water.  Drought, old pipelines, and limited funds for new equipment all play a part. Monitoring the water system can prevent large-scale leaks. Cities can get information on the condition of their fire hydrants, underground pipes, and drainage systems which have been difficult to monitor in the past.

The solution uses Echologics sensors and sound technology from Mueller Water Products with AT&T’s LTE wireless network to detect water pressure, temperature and leaks. The IBM Water Management Center brings all sources of water data together.  It gives a complete view of past, present and future performance.

“A typical water pipe leak wastes almost 400,000 gallons of water per year,” said Mike Troiano, vice president, AT&T Industrial IoT Solutions. “Cities are facing water shortages all over the world and need help identifying issues early to help avoid a catastrophic event. We’re giving communities more visibility into their water supply, and helping them better manage the future operation of their water systems.”

“With this new permanent leak monitoring technology, we can now monitor the pipe for small, subsurface leaks, which gives us a better opportunity to fix them before they develop into larger leaks,” said Charles Scott, engineering project manager, Las Vegas Valley Water District. “This reduces our risk, and allows us to focus our maintenance efforts to targeted sections of pipe.”

The Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD) is a not-for-profit agency that began providing water to the Las Vegas Valley in 1954. It helped build the city's water delivery system and now provides water to more than 1 million people as well as 40 million visitors to Las Vegas per year. The district has built more than 4,000 miles of pipeline and a reservoir system that can store up to 900 million gallons of water. LVVWD uses this new solution to manage the water supply pipeline and limit potential water loss.

AT&T, IBM and Mueller Water Products have teamed up to prove that IoT technology can help address the issue of water sustainability. The companies have created an enhanced water management solution as part of NIST’s Global City Teams Challenge.

“The success of the smart water project wouldn’t be possible without the remarkable vision and execution of three industry leaders,” said Sokwoo Rhee, associate director of Cyber-Physical Systems Program, NIST. “Water shortages are growing at an alarming rate and this technology helps conserve such an essential resource for communities across the globe.”

AT&T develops IoT technology for industries such as supply chain, insurance, industrial asset tracking and smart cities. The solutions include smart meter management, connected vehicles, smart city street and traffic lights.

For more information on AT&T IoT Solutions, visit http://www.att.com/iot

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions of people and businesses around the globe stay connected through leading wireless, high-speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. We’re helping people mobilize their worlds with state-of-the-art communications, entertainment services and amazing innovations like connected cars and devices for homes, offices and points in between. Our U.S. wireless network offers customers the nation’s strongest LTE signal and the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network. We offer the best global wireless coverage*. We’re improving how our customers stay entertained and informed with AT&T U-verse® TV and High Speed Internet services. And businesses worldwide are serving their customers better with AT&T’s mobility and highly secure cloud solutions.

Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at http://about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

© 2015 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Reliability and signal strength claims based on nationwide carriers’ LTE. Signal strength claim based ONLY on avg. LTE signal strength. LTE not available everywhere.

*Global coverage claim based on offering voice and LTE data roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier, and offering the most wireless smartphones and tablets that work in the most countries.