The NB-IoT project is being carried out with local partners including telecoms operator NOS
Chinese vendor Huawei has developed a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) smart meter for Portuguese utility EDP Distribuição in partnership with Janz CE and u-blox.
EDP Distribuição is using this technology for a pilot project as part of the UPGRID project of the Horizon 2020 Program of the European Commission.
The infrastructure network using the cellular-based IoT technology has been installed by local operator NOS, based on Huawei’s technology.
The technology will be tested at the Parque das Nações area in Lisbon with around 100 customers, until the end this year. This cluster of the city is already covered by NB-IoT and has been equipped with two NOS base stations, which provide the coverage.
“We strongly believe that this technology will be the driver for mass adoption of IoT due to its unique advantages. Huawei is also contributing towards faster development of the E2E ecosystem, by deploying several labs around the world focused on the integration of NB-IoT technology in a variety of devices,” said Chris Lu, CEO of Huawei Portugal. “We are proud to participate in this first successful…electricity smart meter project with our partners NOS, EDP Distribuição, Janz CE and u-blox, and we renew our commitment to continuing partnerships of this kind to develop the maturity of the NB-IoT ecosystem in Portugal.”
“U-blox has been an early pioneer developing technical expertise and thought leadership in NB-IoT. Since years, we’ve worked closely with Huawei and with global mobile operator partners to complete technology demonstrators and the first successful commercial trials of pre-standard NBIoT in several Industrial IoT and smart metering applications,” said Andreas Thiel, co-founder and executive VP, cellular products & IC design at u-blox. “With SARA-N2, a 3GPP compliant NB-IoT module, u-blox keeps driving innovation to the smart metering industry, and we are now really pleased to support this electricity smart metering pilot performed on a live commercial network and using 3GPP standard NB-IoT technology.”
