Head of Strategy, Vodafone Business IoT
Digitalisation is driving business change in just about every conceivable sector.
Whether it’s insurers using telematics to assess real-time driving behaviour or farmers monitoring herds of livestock, connected technology is being used in an increasingly diverse range of applications, resulting in new services and revenue streams.
The next wave of growth is likely to be powered by Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), a new breed of low-power, wide-area wireless communication, which has the potential to significantly increase the penetration of digitally-connected devices.
NB-IoT provides strong coverage over wide areas, even when devices are underground or deep within buildings. It also offers great power efficiency, so devices can run on batteries for ten years or more without the need for charge.
The technology is built on low-cost communications hardware and its low bandwidth requirements mean that most use cases require just a few bytes of data to be transmitted per device per day.
These performance characteristics means NB-IoT is unlocking a new wave of applications that have not previously benefited from connectivity due to barriers such as power, cost and propagation.
Here are five diverse applications that we are working on which highlight the art of the possible with NB-IoT:
It’s clear, then, that NB-IoT has the potential to transform business models across a wide range of industries. Vodafone has successfully deployed the technology in nine countries, including Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. Vodafone is also running NB-IoT trials in other parts of the world and has established a network of NB-IoT test labs which provide the ideal pre-integration testing environment for application developers and device, module and chip manufacturers. To further simplify and accelerate the deployment of NB-IoT, Vodafone also provide developers with access to NB-IoT development kits.
Vodafone for Business believes that NB-IoT represents the best solution for low-cost, wide-area deployments. And as more organisations join the ecosystem of partners and vendors, it will continue to drive the emergence of exciting use cases across key areas such as buildings, insurance and healthcare.
In short, NB-IoT provides the technology pathway to a low-cost connected future.
Discover how Techem uses Vodafone NB-IoT to track energy consumption reliably and cost-effectively and how Zelenza is using Vodafone NB-IoT to offer added value to multiple industries.
Explore the possibilities a Gigabit Society can bring to your business. Receive a monthly digest straight to your inbox.
Around the globe, our network reaches over 184 countries.
We provide the underlying transport network, the virtual overlay, and the platform to prioritise everything.
We have been recognised by industry analysts as leading network providers.