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Vodacom opens narrowband IOT lab

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 27 Jun 2017
Deon Liebenberg, managing executive for Vodacom IOT.
Deon Liebenberg, managing executive for Vodacom IOT.

Vodacom has opened a narrowband Internet of things (NB-IOT) laboratory at its Vodaworld campus to incubate and commercialise machine-to-machine and Internet of things (IOT) systems using narrowband networking.

The operator announced late last year that it has commenced its NB-IOT network build, which it will launch commercially in major metropolitan areas across SA later this year.

Vodacom says it continues to aggressively drive investment in the expansion of its IOT offering, which has been identified as one of the key strategic growth areas of the business.

NB-IOT is a low power wide area (LPWA) network technology which enables new use cases for IOT solutions. LPWA networks can communicate with devices where radio penetration has not previously been possible. LPWA devices are also power-efficient, resulting in devices being deployed in-field with multi-year batteries.

"Vodacom's NB-IOT lab provides a controlled test environment and framework for customers and developers to develop hardware and applications as well as test their endpoint devices on the NB-IOT network," says Deon Liebenberg, managing executive for Vodacom IOT.

"Vodacom is investing heavily in South Africa's NB-IOT ecosystem and we look forward to collaborating with developers and customers to realise its potential. Our ultimate goal is to nurture an ecosystem of developers, engineers and entrepreneurs for NB-IOT applications on the continent."

The opening of the lab follows Vodacom's announcement last month that it has successfully completed the launch of Africa's first live NB-IOT site, in partnership with Huawei. The live site, which is on the roof of Vodacom's data centre in Johannesburg, is the first step towards the development of a smart campus which will monitor and meter utilities on the network.

Collection of this data will reduce the risks of water losses, mitigating both environmental sustainability and cost risks, the operator says.

NB-IOT will enable the rollout of new services, including the next wave of connected things, it adds. Vodacom's NB-IOT network will leverage its existing established network infrastructure, ensuring excellent coverage and reliable connectivity, it says. A large portion of the network requires a software upgrade to support the technology, which means that deploying NB-IOT across Vodacom's existing base stations is a relatively fast roll-out, driven by geographic deployment and based on demand.

In 2016, Huawei and Vodafone announced the opening of the world's first Narrowband IOT open lab, to provide a pre-integration testing environment for application developers and device, module and chip manufacturers.

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