Not surprised the meter reader ran away. They allocated 2 hours for the reader to get into all ~330 lots at ours.
& the wireless meters we now have have a 10 year+ battery so they don’t transmit very far. They are read by someone wandering along the corridors. Model is this one:
https://www.enware.com.au/product/EHM9020?pid=3291
I’m not sure how one would work if it transmitted via 3G/4G presumably the meter would need to be hard wired to power.
Get your Owner’s Corp./residents to start writing stern letters to Jemena/Obudsperson saying estimates aren’t good enough.