NB-IoT trial follows a previous MoU with Zain to collaborate on 5G and IoT
Nokia and Middle East telecommunications operator Zain have announced the completion of a trial of NB-IoT technology at a live site in the Mina area of Makkah province, in Saudi Arabia.
In the trial–which used smart metering as a test use case–NB-IoT was applied to communicate temperature, humidity and air pressure from a remote location via a Nokia LTE base station at 900 MHz, demonstrating the role NB-IoT could play in applications such as smart metering for electricity departments, smart parking and smart waste management, the involved firms said. The NB-IoT trial follows the MoU signed by Nokia and Zain Saudi Arabia to collaborate on 5G and IoT development.
In the NB-IoT trial, data was transferred using Nokia’s LTE radio platform Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and Nokia’s professional services, including system integration, network implementation, and care services.
“This Saudi-first IoT trial in a live network again shows our strong commitment to bring new services to make people’s lives more comfortable and productive. It has been a fruitful, decade-long journey with our longtime partner Nokia in transforming telecom services in Saudi Arabia, and now this successful joint trial accelerates our initiatives in building smart cities across the Kingdom including Riyadh and Jeddah,” said Abdulaziz AlDeghaither, Chief Technology Officer at Zain Saudi Arabia.
“This trial is the first step in utilizing Zain’s country-wide LTE network assets to create a cost-efficient IoT ecosystem and introduce new services. NB-IoT will help connect numerous devices, opening revenue opportunities in many verticals including transport, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, agriculture and home appliances,” Ali Al Jitawi, head of the Zain Saudi Arabia customer team at Nokia, said.
In April 2016, Zain and Nokia had signed a MoU to collaborate on an initiative to transform Jeddah, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest cities, into a model for smart cities in the country and worldwide by 2018.