Vodafone Spain and Huawei have announced the successful completion of the first over-the-air connection on a live network using standardised NB-IoT (narrowband Internet of Things). The trial was held in Madrid on 19 September, with engineers using a live 4G base station supporting NB-IoT technology to make the connection via the 800 MHz licensed spectrum frequency band. In a statement the companies described the test as the last important milestone before the commercial launch of NB-IoT in 2017.
NB-IoT is an industrial grade Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network layer that will connect millions of everyday objects in difficult to reach locations that have low power requirements and that have been too expensive to connect previously. The companies said NB-IoT also offers businesses the reliability and safeguards they need as it operates in licensed spectrum and provides the same levels of security as 4G. The NB-IoT specification was finalised as a global standard by 3GPP back in June.
The first successful trial of NB-IoT on a live commercial network comes after Huawei and Vodafone earlier this year established the world’s first NB-IoT Open Lab in Newbury (UK) to contribute to the development and promotion of its ecosystem.
Source: http://www.telecompaper.com/news/vodafone-huawei-complete-first-commercial-trial-of-nb-iot--1163290