Patent ID: 7741976

Claim:
A method for processing meter data into a common format, comprising: receiving, in a first transmission, meter data using a satellite communications network in a common protocol, the meter data representing information read at time intervals from associated utility meters in at least two data formats, each data format associated with a type of utility meter; processing the meter data in the plurality of formats into a common data format; and storing the meter data in the common format as interval data for transmission to a customer; comparing a first time interval of the received data to a second time interval of previously stored data from a particular meter; if at least a portion of the first time interval and the second time interval overlap, determining an overlap of data; discarding a selected portion of the received data or the stored data to remove the overlap; if the first time interval is not contiguous with the second time interval, determining a gap is in the data; initiating a request for data from the meter to fill the gap in the data; and if the data to fill the gap is not received, transmitting the data with the gap to the customer.