Upgrades coming to New Mexico Gas Company meters

in the next six months, expect a stranger to show up at your home. no reason to worry, though---that person will be there to upgrade your gas meter. the new mexico gas company is installing 340- thousand automated meter readers to current gas meters... from belen to albuquerque--- to santa fe. antoinette antonio is live to explain why. antoinette? right now... workers still go from home to home reading your gas meter so the gas company knows what to charge you every month. that's going to change with the new technology... but we wanted to know how accurate this new technology will be. the new technology is already being used on more than half of the gas meters across the country. now it's coming to new mexico. it's called automated meter reading. "the purpose of this is to read more meters in a shorter period of time and to be 100% accurate in the reading." chris ward -- nats and other technicians with utility partners of america -- are fanning out across albuquere, santa fe and belen... they're installing these gadgets that allow the new mexico gas company to read your gas meters remotely. once the system goes online -- workers will collect readings by driving through a neighborhood... since the device can send the readings through radio transmission. "it allows us to read the meters without coming on to the property and gets rid of any problems that arise with having to read all the meters manually. utilities in other parts of the country have faced some issues after installing similar technology -- including customers complaining about higher bills and faulty equipment. but the new mexico gas company insists the system it's using will be accurate... more accurate than a human being. in fact, the system will undergo a test period, comparing remote readings to manual readings for the next six months. "this wont be turned over to the remote reading until we're sure that the meters are reading correctly and that they're programmed correctly workers will knock on your door when to let you know they're installing the device -- but you don't have to be home if it's accessible. if your meter is behind a locked gate -- you'll get a notice like this one so you can set up an appointment. for more info on the technology you can go to kob dot com

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