The essential difference is equipment ownership and data recipient.
Utility service metering generally means the utility owns the globe and receives the data. The customer might have to provide and construct the socket as a provision for the globe.
Check metering generally means the customer owns all the equipment, and uses the data for their own internal purpose.
One place you might see this, is if multiple buildings are on a common service, and each have their own feeder. The owner might want to keep track of energy usage by individual building.