Etisalat today announced its commercial launch of NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies becoming the first operator in the MENA region to offer these new technologies enabling variety of solutions and services. Both NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) and LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for machines) technologies are 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) based standardized technologies using licensed spectrum for carrier-grade security and targeting low power wide area IoT requirement.
These technologies also enable battery life of more than 10 years for a wide range of devices. The IoT device testing conducted with leading chipset and module manufacturers including Huawei, Qualcomm and Quectel, where end-to-end testing was performed with IoT devices connected to Etisalat IoT platform.
Saeed Al Zarouni, Senior Vice President, Mobile Network, Etisalat said: “Today we are proud of achieving another milestone in digital transformation with the commercial deployment of NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies in our live network. Etisalat will continue to participate in the IoT ecosystem by fulfilling growing market demands, in particular our business and enterprise customers. In addition, we are focusing on investing and developing new technologies to work in line with the overall company objective to support the government in developing Smart Cities in the country.”
Etisalat is also deploying end-to-end IoT solutions and services for its customers in coordination with multi network vendors and IoT device suppliers targeting wide range of verticals and industries focused on Smart Cities. Etisalat currently runs a fully equipped state of the art data center that is capable of hosting all IoT applications and services to meet the growing market demand in the country. The IoT solutions are being implemented across industry verticals mainly health, transportation and education.
