Zain Bahrain, a leading telecoms operator in the kingdom, in collaboration with Ericsson, a world-leading provider of communications technology, announced the successful completion of trials of Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology to support Bahrain in achieving National Telecommunication Plan (NTP) - 5 Machine to Machine (M2M) aspirations.
The trial that started in Bahrain in early August with Ericsson highlights Zain’s capability on NB-IoT and the company’s continuous investment to enhance its network by introducing and showcasing the massive potential the latest technologies will have in the kingdom, said a statement.
NB-IoT is based on the 3GPP cellular standard and is designed to be a low-power, low-cost, high-penetration solution to enable low-bandwidth communications as part of the Internet of Things, using a very narrow band of low-frequency spectrum. NB-IoT has an excellent range and object penetration capabilities making it perfect for remote monitoring of static or limited movement installations where data transmissions are small. Once deployed in Bahrain, the technology is expected to help accelerate the proliferation of IoT devices and develop the IoT ecosystem, the advantages of which include coverage, long battery life, and cost-effective solutions to enterprises, it said.
Commenting on the successful completion of the NB-IoT trial, Ali Al-Yaham, Director Technology at Zain Bahrain, said: “NB-IoT is the main pillar to enable IoT & M2M in a massive scale. Zain Bahrain’s successful trial with Ericsson shows that NB-IoT has everything that is needed to become the new, interoperable standard in the machine-to-machine (M2M) communication sector. NB-IoT is expected to become an integral part of 5G, addressing the significant demand for low-speed, low-bandwidth connections for massive machine to machine communication. At Zain Bahrain, it is our continuous effort and commitment to enhance people’s livelihood by bringing in innovative solutions and applications. We have made investments to improve mobile, fixed and international services with special focus on coverage enhancement where data connectivity can be achieved in locations that other technologies fail to reach. The trial is also a testament to provide the citizens & businesses of Bahrain with a superior telecommunications experience.”
Earlier this year, Zain Bahrain and Ericsson had rolled out 5G commercial services in the kingdom. Zain Bahrain has continuously focused on investing in innovation and on next-generation technologies and services to enhance the network, through providing a full range of telecom services to their B2B clients, which include local and international connectivity, high-speed internet access, fixed voice & PABX, as well as mobility solutions, it said.