Vodafone said that over 805,000 IoT connections had been added in the first half of the year
Vodafone Spain reached over 7.37 million active IoT lines as of June 30, marking a 27.7% year-on-year growth, the telco said in a release.
Vodafone noted that 1.6 million IoT lines had been activated between July 2023 and June 2024.
“This trend accelerated with 805,941 new IoT lines gained in the last half year alone as a result of the IoT product and service diversification strategy that the operator has implemented in recent years,” the telco said.
“The company is currently integrating IoT technology into sectors such as security and connected alarms, banking through payment methods, logistics operators, connected fleets, renewable energy, agriculture, Smart City management, waste, comprehensive water and electricity management and healthcare services, among others,” Vodafone Spain added.
Vodafone Spain in particular highlighted its recent agreement with Aqualia. This contract will involve connecting more than 1 million water meters to the NB-IoT network during the first five years of the contract.
Aqualia, majority-owned by the Barcelona-based FCC Group, is the fourth-largest water company in Europe by customers, and ninth in the world. It provides service to around 45 million users in 18 countries, including parts of Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.
The Vodafone NB-IoT solution measures water consumption in households, industries, and public entities. The pair are working on a metering pilot in the city of Vigo, on Spain’s northwest coast, to “help Aqualia have comprehensive control of the tele-reading solution and ensure the best service to its customers”. The scope of the work is also to detect fraud and leaks and to predict consumption patterns to save energy and reduce pressure on the system.
Also in this area, Vodafone said it has been awarded the largest of the four lots of the contract with which Canal de Isabel II has acquired water meters with NB-IoT connectivity and telecommunications services for their automatic remote reading sytem. This contract involves the supply of 315,000 water meters and the deployment of their IoT connectivity over the next five years.
Vodafone Group recently completed the sale of its Spanish operation to Zegona Communications for $5.4 billion. The deal, which was first revealed late last year, marks the end of Vodafone’s presence as a telco in Spain.
Vodafone and Zegona previously said they will enter into a brand license agreement, which permits the use of the Vodafone brand in Spain for up to 10 years post-completion. Vodafone and Zegona will enter into other transitional and long-term arrangements for services including access to procurement, IoT, roaming and carrier services.