The NB-IoT network currently covers Seoul, major metropolitan areas as well as small towns
South Korea’s KT Corp and LG Uplus have jointly established what they claim to be the world’s first nationwide commercial NB-IoT network, local press reported.
The two Asian telecoms operators had started to deploy this technology eight months ago. The NB-IoT network currently covers capital Seoul and all metropolitan areas, plus small towns, ports and roads.
The two telcos said that they expect to expand the commercial NB-IoT services later this year to include remote gas meter reading, vehicle management/tracking and other utility meter management applications.
“Based on leadership of NB-IoT technologies, we are going to seek to coexist with small and medium South Korean companies continuously and we are planning to actively support these companies to enter global markets,” LG Uplus’ director of IoT, An Sung-joon, said.
“We are going to grow the number of members of GiGA IoT Alliance to 600, and see it as an opportunity to find start-up companies that are looking to enter IoT markets,” said Kim Joon-geun, head of KT’s ‘GiGA IoT’ business division.
Rival operator SK Telecom operates a nationwide low power wide area (LPWA) IoT network, based on the LoRaWAN standard, using unlicensed spectrum.
Movistar integrates Sigfox LPWA IoT technology into its managed platform
In other IoT news, Telefonica Mexico, which operates under the Movistar brand, has confirmed that it is integrating Sigfox LPWA IoT technology into its managed connectivity platform, to enable B2B customers to deploy IoT devices on a massive scale.
“Depending on their needs, users will be able to choose the most appropriate type of connectivity or even combine them, implement use cases and create new service opportunities that, in other circumstances, would never have been possible,” said Mariano Moral, B2B vice president of Telefonica Mexico.
The Sigfox network is currently present in 32 countries, 12 of which with nationwide coverage, including France and Spain. Sigfox expects to operate in 60 countries by the end of 2018.
