Disclosed are methodology and apparatus for providing communications with an Automatic Meter Reading/Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMR/AMI) collector device. The collector is provided with a WiFi radio that is enabled for operation from an AMR/AMI head end and turned on in response to a transmission coming from a physical device via the AMR/AMI RF LAN. A user device is granted access to the collector data only upon validation by the collector of multiple credentials that are separately presented to the collector. The credentials come from the physical device in the form of device type and device identification, and from the user device in the form of a valid security certificate and username/password combination.