The telco aims to reach 2,600 towns with IoT services by the end of 2017
French telecommunications operator Orange confirmed its LoRa IoT network is already available in 18 urban areas across France, encompassing approximately 1,300 towns.
These areas include Angers, Avignon, Bordeaux, Douai and Lens, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Orleans, Paris, Rennes, Rouen, Toulon, Toulouse and Strasbourg.
The European telco aims its IoT network to cover 120 urban areas including 2,600 towns across the country by the end of next year.
Orange said that the density of the IoT network combined with the LoRa connectivity services offered by Orange Business Services enables the operator to support its customers’ projects based on objects or sensors with low power consumption.
Orange also said that it expects its IoT business to generate revenues of 600 million euros ($669 million) by 2018, which is one of the objectives of the company’s Essentials 2020 strategic plan.
Present in 29 countries, the Orange Group had a total of 250 million customers worldwide at the end of the second quarter, including 189 million mobile customers and 18 million fixed broadband customers.
T-Systems wins ICT deal with German automaker Daimler
In other EMEA news, ICT service providers T-Systems, part of German telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has won a multi-million deal with compatriot automaker Daimler.
T-Systems said that the contract to operate Daimler’s mainframes includes modernization of the hardware, which will entail deployment of the very latest mainframe technology. The two partners also want to focus more on standard software in order to make the operation of IT applications in the production and distribution environments even more efficient.
T-Systems connects more than two million Daimler vehicles across the globe via Daimler’s proprietary connected car platform, and it will continue to operate the existing “Mercedes me connect” services for the next generation of vehicles as well. These services include live traffic information, safety functions such as emergency call, convenience services such as remote control, and infotainment apps like Internet radio and hotel/parking search functions.
T-Systems’ portfolio includes traditional ICT services, cloud access, custom infrastructure, and platforms and software from the cloud, as well as innovative projects in areas including big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) communication.
