The Ericsson Garage will focus on IoT apps for smart cities, transport and energy projects
Swedish vendor Ericsson inaugurated an open lab for 5G technologies at the company’s headquarters in Massy near Paris.
The Ericsson Garage has a focus on collaborating with students, startups and employees on a pre-5G platform to develop connected objects with low-latency.
In its initial phase, Ericsson Garage France will focus on internet of things applications for smart cities, transport and energy, providing interested parties with access to a pre-5G (LTE evolutions including Narrow Band IoT) platform for developing low-latency applications.
Ericsson Garage France also has a branch in Lannion, which will initially develop connected tennis and connected building projects.
“Ericsson Garage France will be an additional source of innovation that will support stakeholders in their digital transformation and create value to keep European industry competitive,” Sandor Albrecht, Research Director & Head of the Ericsson Garage, said.
“For Ericsson, setting up a Garage open lab in France is thus a logical move and will help to drive the development of innovative concepts as 5G becomes a reality,” Franck Bouétard, head of Ericsson France, said.
Vodafone, Huawei complete first commercial trial of NB-IoT in Spain
In related news, Vodafone Spain and Chinese vendor Huawei have completed the first over-the-air connection on a live network using standardized NB-IoT.
The trial was held in Madrid on September 19, with engineers using a live 4G base station supporting NB-IoT technology. The demonstration was carried out using spectrum in the 800 MHz band.
Vodafone is planning to launch its first NB-IoT networks in four countries early next year.
“This first successful trial of NB-IoT on a live commercial network is a significant technology milestone on the path towards a world with billions of devices connected at extremely low cost with minimal power requirements to mobile networks,” Matt Beal, Vodafone’s Group Director of Technology Architecture & Strategy, said.
“NB-IoT has strong support as the industrial LPWA technology to support our enterprise customers. This successful trial demonstrates Vodafone’s commitment and ability to bring this technology to market early in 2017.”
