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Orange launches commercial LTE-M network in France

The French carrier expects to launch LTE-M in Spain and Romania by end-2019

 
French telecom operator Orange has announced the commercial launch of its LTE-M network in France. Orange already launched its LTE-M network in Belgium in May 2018. The carrier also confirmed plans to launch LTE-M networks in Spain and Romania by the end of this year. 
The telco said that the combination of LTE-M and LoRa technologies will enable Orange to fully support the increasing demand in the IoT market and address the broad range of use-cases in the IoT field.

Orange said that it will select the appropriate technology on a country by country basis. “LTE-M, which is a technology specifically dedicated to connected objects and deployed on Orange’s 4G networks will address objects that are on the move, in buildings or underground places. It is therefore suitable for logistical monitoring, telemonitoring, remote assistance and fleet management.  Furthermore, LTE-M technology benefits from all the features of 4G including security, real-time connectivity and international roaming, thanks to broad support of the technology from other operators worldwide and already integrates with future 5G standards,” the carrier said in a statement.

“Complementary to this is LoRa, a technology solution that addresses very low battery power consumption use-cases with -inexpensive modules and with a large and growing ecosystem from sensors to applications. Orange has been a long-standing proponent of LoRa technology deploying a national network in France which some 250 corporate customers already using it.”

Following the launch of its first LTE-M network in Belgium, Orange has been undertaking extensive trials of LTE-M in several other European markets throughout 2018 allowing customers, partners and device manufacturers to test and develop different use-cases in different sectors such as utilities electricity, gas and water, industry and logistics. Orange also said that it has ongoing LTE-M trials in other European markets.

Orange Business Services,will now begin offering LTE-M technology to all companies in metropolitan France that have subscribed to its 4G IoT offer.

Earlier this year, Orange had announced plans to extend 5G tests to greater Paris area and Île-de-France. The telco said that Paris, Châtillon and Linas-Montlhéry are the next zones to host Orange’s new 5G tests.
In Paris, Orange said it will introduce a platform designed for 5G demonstrations in the Opéra district where its Orange Opéra megastore is located. This 5G test will take place next year, the telco said.
Also, starting this autumn, Orange will offer its partners the chance to test innovative products and services in a 5G laboratory at its Orange Gardens site in Châtillon. The telco said that this facility will offer a very low-latency connection with speeds faster than those available via 4G. These tests will focus in particular on 5G services for the general public, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), communications in an immersive environment and 4K/8K video. 5G services for companies will continue to be addressed in co-innovation projects at the dedicated Paris-Saclay platform, Orange said.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro covers Global Carriers and Global Enterprise IoT. Prior to RCR, Juan Pedro worked for Business News Americas, covering telecoms and IT news in the Latin American markets. He also worked for Telecompaper as their Regional Editor for Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Juan Pedro has also contributed to Latin Trade magazine as the publication's correspondent in Argentina and with political risk consultancy firm Exclusive Analysis, writing reports and providing political and economic information from certain Latin American markets. He has a degree in International Relations and a master in Journalism and is married with two kids.