These grey boxes are attached to the exterior of over 800,000 buildings across New York City. They are Meter Transmission Units, manufactured by Aclara (owned by ESCO technologies of St Louis, Missouri) and part of a 2008 New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) program titled “Citywide Advanced Metering Infrastructure Program.” They transmit data from meter sensors inside the building to nearby Network Data Collectors, which in turn send it to the DEP for more accurate billing compared to estimating bills based on irregular manual meter readings, and near-real-time leak alerts for building owners.

Visually identical units marked with different manufacturers are also used.

Model Name	Star Network Meter Transmission Unit
Primary Manufacturer	Aclara, owned by ESCO Technologies Inc.
Owner/Administrator	New York City Department of Environmental Protection
Part of	“Citywide Advanced Metering Infrastructure Program”