NB-IoT demo planned for Bonn
German operator Deutsche Telekom (DT) and Chinese vendor Huawei claim to have activated the world’s first fully standardized NB-IoT network on the telco’s live network in Germany.
The two companies said they aim to launch a demo of this technology next week in the city of Bonn. According to Deutsche Telekom, the activation of the NB-IoT network took place on October 4. DT’s subsidiary T-Mobile Netherlands also took part in the activation of the NB-IoT network.
The participating companies did not provide further details about spectrum or technology used in this initiative.
The telco also said the companies plan to demonstrate a commercial NB-IoT smart parking system.
In June, Deutsche Telekom said it was actively involved in the development of NB-IoT and announced the establishment of its NB-IoT Prototyping Hub.
A Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology, NB-IoT is currently one of the most widely discussed innovations in M2M communication for the internet of things (IoT). The technology runs on existing operator networks in licensed spectrum to support a massive number of IoT devices. It is especially optimized for applications with low bandwidth requirements, such as smart parking, smart metering or smart waste management.
European smart gas meters market to reach 62.4M by 2022
In related news, annual shipments of smart gas meters in Europe will grow by 118% between 2016 and 2018 to reach 11.8 million units, according to a recent study by Swedish research firm Berg Insight.
By 2022, the installed base of smart gas meters is forecast to reach 62.4 million units, compared to 10.1 million this year. The increase will mainly be driven by nationwide rollouts in France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.
The study revealed that Italy will be the largest market with annual demand projected to peak at more than 5 million units towards the end of the decade. The nationwide rollouts in France and the UK will accelerate next year as both countries enter the mass deployment phase.
