Vodafone Business, a global leader in IoT connectivity with over 118m devices connected worldwide, is expanding its Long Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M) footprint, making the technology available to customers in more countries.
According to industry analysts, the IoT market is forecast to maintain its strong growth trajectory over the next ten years. This growth will be attributable in part to the increasing use of Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network technology, including NB-IoT and LTE-M.
Since rolling out its first NB-IoT network in 2017, Vodafone has NB-IoT networks in 18 countries, roaming agreements to cover an additional 35 networks and is now rolling out LTE-M across its footprint. LTE-M is already live in the Netherlands and was recently launched in Germany, covering 90% of the country.
The addition of LTE-M means Vodafone is completing its connectivity portfolio and is able to offer customers IoT connectivity via Satellite, 5G, 4G, 2G, LTE-M and NB-IoT.
Our LPWA networks are a key enabler in the continued growth of IoT and two-thirds of the 4 billion LPWA IoT connections predicted by 2030 by analysts will be accounted for by NB-IoT and LTE-M. Our customers have been using NB-IoT since 2017 and the ability to offer both NB-IoT and LTE-M enables us to offer them an even better match for their specific projects, opening up a wide range of use cases that were simply not possible before.
Erik Brenneis, Vodafone Business IoT Director
NB-IoT and LTE-M are both licensed low power networks and provide high signal penetration and low power consumption, making them ideal for battery devices and indoor applications. NB-IoT is optimised for power and low bandwidth, whilst LTE-M provides a range of additional capabilities including voice and will be the natural replacement for many devices that currently operate on 2G networks.
Stephan Klink, Head of Commercial Expansion at Vodafone Business IoT said: “We have seen a step-change in the adoption of LPWA technology and many equipment manufacturers now ask for a single solution for multiple countries. We have therefore expanded our coverage to match their demands, via both our own LPWA networks and our extensive ecosystem of roaming partners. Adding LTE-M to the mix will also enable devices to take advantage of more networks using many of the dual technology modems that are available on the market”.
Vodafone Business customers are already using NB-IoT and LTE-M for their IoT deployments in the agricultural sector, energy, health and utilities and as part of their Mobile Private Networks (MPN) projects.
Vodafone is a leading telecommunications company in Europe and Africa. Our purpose is to “connect for a better future” and our expertise and scale gives us a unique opportunity to drive positive change for society. Our networks keep family, friends, businesses and governments connected and – as COVID-19 has clearly demonstrated – we play a vital role in keeping economies running and the functioning of critical sectors like education and healthcare.
Vodafone is the largest mobile and fixed network operator in Europe and a leading global IoT connectivity provider. Our M-Pesa technology platform in Africa enables over 45m people to benefit from access to mobile payments and financial services. We operate mobile and fixed networks in 21 countries and partner with mobile networks in 48 more. As of 30 September 2020 we had over 300m mobile customers, more than 27m fixed broadband customers, over 22m TV customers and we connected more than 112m IoT devices.
We support diversity and inclusion through our maternity and parental leave policies, empowering women through connectivity and improving access to education and digital skills for women, girls, and society at large. We are respectful of all individuals, irrespective of race, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, belief, culture or religion.
Vodafone is also taking significant steps to reduce our impact on our planet by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2025, purchasing 100% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and reusing, reselling or recycling 100% of our redundant network equipment.
For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com, follow us on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone.
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