The French operator will initially install 100 smart meter devices starting next month
French telecommunications group Orange will launch what it claims to be Tunisia’s first smart meter pilot in partnership with the Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas (STEG).
The pilot, which will be launched in September, is due to run for six months with 100 smart meters installed in residential premises in Tunisia.
The French operator said that a total of 4 million smart meters are expected to be deployed once the solution is rolled out commercially across the country. Orange is offering its “smart metering as a service” by building a infrastructure that connects and manages millions of smart meters to help utility companies reduce the cost of reading meters and the risk of fraud or billing errors.
Present in 29 countries, the Orange Group has a total customer base of 250 million customers worldwide as of 30 June 2016, including 189 million mobile customers and 18 million fixed broadband customers. In Africa and the Middle East, the operator has commercial operations in 21 markets.
Vodafone wins insurance telematics solutions contract
In other EMEA news, U.K-based telecoms group Vodafone will deploy insurance telematics services for global provider of telematics solutions Wunelli.
Wunelli provides a complete end-to-end telematics solution to enable insurers and brokers to offer telematics-based motor insurance products.
Under the terms of the deal, Vodafone will assist Wunelli in providing insurers with an expanding choice of data collection methods, working closely with the leading suppliers for each field.
“We are very pleased to announce Vodafone as one of our chosen suppliers of telematics units and essential vehicle information. Data quality and integrity is obviously central to any telematics proposition and Vodafone’s expertise in the connected car space including design and manufacture of high performance telematics products will support the delivery of the high quality we demand,” said Selim Cavanagh, Vice President of Telematics, Wunelli.
