Utility meter for paying a utility bill

摘要

Systems (100) and methods (400) allowing bill payment processing to be initiated from a utility meter (105) are provided. An example system may include a utility meter (105) for paying a utility bill that is operable to: measure utility usage; output data associated with the utility usage; receive user instructions to issue utility bill payment instructions associated with the measured utility usage over the communications network; authenticate the user according to the user authentication information; and transmit the utility bill payment instructions and the payment information over the communications network for processing.