Patent ID: 7102533

Claim:
An automatic meter reading system comprising: a plurality of meter-reading devices attached to respective utility meters; and a remote control center communicating directly with the meter-reading devices through telephone lines, wherein each meter-reading device reads commodity utilization measured by the utility meters when a meter reading request signal is received from the remote control center over the telephone lines, and wherein the meter-reading device includes a main control unit (MCU) and a caller ID (CID) decoder, the CID decoder decoding the meter reading request signal and extracting a CID from the meter reading request signal, the MCU comparing the CID extracted by the CID decoder with a previously stored CID for identifying the remote control center and performing one of maintaining on-hook state if the CID is not identical with the remote control center CID or controlling the meter reading device to enter an off-hook state if the CID is identical with the remote control center CID.