Chunghwa taps Ericsson for trial NB-IoT system

Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom has contracted Ericsson to deliver a trial narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) system, and plans to use the system to test a range of IoT devices and applications at its laboratory.

Ericsson will provide an end-to-end NB-IoT solution comprising a radio system, massive IoT RAN software, virtual EPC, virtual subscriber data management and an IoT smart device and application service.

The two companies have also agreed to continue to work together to identify 5G use cases and applications for the digital transformation of industry verticals such as transportation and utilities. Ericsson and Chunghwa Telecom signed a 5G collaboration memorandum of understanding at Mobile World Congress 2017 in February.

NB-IoT, a 3GPP standards-based low power wide area (LPWA) technology promises significant improvements in areas including indoor penetration, power consumption and system capacity that will be needed to support future IoT applications.

“Ericsson has long been our leading network provider and has demonstrated the strong device life-cycle management and integration capabilities that are required for a system of this type,” Chugnhwa Telecom EVP and president of Telecommunication Laboratories Chen Shyang-Yih said.

“NB-IoT technology is one of our primary focuses in 2017, and we are keen to explore more opportunities based on the new technology.”

Chunghwa also recently announced plans to introduce four-carrier aggregation (CA) this month using the 1,800-MHz spectrum refarmed following the nation’s 2G switch-off.