I live in the city of São Paulo. The local utility company replaced the analog electricity meter with a digital one.
The official motivations for this initiative by the utility company were, admittedly, mainly: (1) To replace in-person meter reading with telemetry, thus reducing its monthly cost; and (2) To offer customers information about their consumption via an app.
In my case, as well as that of my neighbors, the meter reading continues to be done in person (by a subcontractor), and there has been no difference in the information provided in my app.
So the question remains: why was this "change" "introduced"?