A system and an associated method for monitoring a flowing utility. A transducer, located at a utility flow location, senses data indicative of a utility flow characteristic and outputs a signal conveying the sensed data. A meter device, at the utility flow location, executes at least one program instruction and outputs a signal that conveys at least the sensed data but not a determination of a utility flow characteristic. A remote server, located remote from the utility flow location, receives the signal from the meter device that conveys at least the sensed data but not a determination of the utility flow characteristic, processes the sensed data to determine the utility flow characteristic, processes the sensed data to determine, based at least in part on the sensed data, a program instruction to be executed by the meter device, and transmits a control signal to the meter device.