China Telecom, Huawei hold NB-IoT symposium

China Telecom and Huawei co-hosted a symposium in Shenzhen yesterday aimed at exploring the potential of narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) technology in smart city applications.

The symposium attracted participants from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) as well as representatives from industries including water, gas, smart meters and other fields.

Attendees were told that the wide coverage and massive simultaneous connection capabilities of NB-IoT meke it ideally suited for deployment in smart city areas including water and gas management, street lighting and car parking.

“NB-IoT-based Smart Water and Smart Gas are the main components in Smart City, fully exhibiting the informatization level in the public service provisioning sector of a city,” China Telecom GM of government and enterprise Sun Jian commented.

“China Telecom and Huawei have initiated together pilot NB-IoT applications on Smart Water and Smart Gas with industry partners, including Shenzhen Water and Shenzhen Gas. Through comprehensive cooperation on standards formulation, technological research, network construction, service development, business model exploration, and associated aspects, all parties wish to jointly promote informatization construction for water and gas industries.”

Huawei president of marketing and solutions Zhang Shunmao added that Huawei is currently shipping 200,000 NB-IoT capable chips per month, and expects to increase this to 1 million per month in the future.

This year the company is also scheduled to deploy more than 30 NB-IoT networks for Smart City applications – particularly for public service provisioning – in over 20 countries this year.

Separately, IoT provider Thinxtra has announced a partnership with Hong Kong wireless technology company Victory Concept to develop IoT devices for Asia-Pacific enterprises to implement using the low-power-wide area (LPWA) Sigfox network.

Thinxtra recently announced plans to deploy a Sigfox network throughout Hong Kong by June. The devices will also be compatible with Sigfox networks in 32 countries worldwide.

“The Thinxtra network will offer companies and researchers in Hong Kong the chance to create new products and services based on IoT. We believe that Hong Kong has the potential to be a world-leading IoT design and manufacturing hub,” Thinxtra Asia MD Murray Hankinson said.

“With the skills and facilities to provide a reliable supply of high-quality, low-cost devices in Hong Kong, Victory Concept is helping us create the right conditions for IoT innovation to flourish here and spread around Asia Pacific and to the world.”