Local telco Proximus has selected Kerlink for the deployment of 800 stations
French firm Kerlink has obtained a contract to provide Belgian telecommunications company Proximus with 800 additional stations for the latter’s LoRaWAN IoT network in Belgium.
This new contract follows Proximus’s deployment of a LoRaWAN IoT network in 2015 with 130 Kerlink stations. Kerlink said that the rollout of the additional stations will be fully completed by the end of the year.
Targeting public network operators, Kerlink’s Wirnet iBTS Standard and Wirnet iBTS Compact stations are deployed outdoors and provide long-range and geolocation-ready connectivity.
“In addition to its increasing deployment to power new networks in Europe, South Asia and South America, the Wirnet product range readily supports cell densification and enhanced service, like geolocation or native security for remote management of gateways,” said Yann Bauduin, director of sales for operators at Kerlink.
“Launching a cell-densification project in a short time after starting the deployment of our LoRaWAN network in Belgium is testimony to the positive reception and increasing use of the network by our customers,” said Alex Thomas, IoT program manager for Proximus. “We tested Kerlink’s Wirnet stations before deployment, and they demonstrated that they fully meet the expectations of users.”
“This new IoT network has already stimulated innovations and opened the door to new business models. This is the case for some interesting applications we support today, like measuring the fullness of glass containers in order to optimize pick-up routes and enhance customer experience. In addition, we launched a project with the biggest gas supplier in Belgium, where we will monitor the gas tanks of people in their homes, to improve the service they can offer to their end-customers,” Joke Tisaun, Proximus IoT product manager, said.
The Belgian telco also recently showcased a solution for industry environments to record energy information required for energy optimization. “For that purpose, sensors monitor the temperature, humidity, light and opening of doors, and send this information, almost in real-time. This ensures higher reliability, and improves management efficiency,” Tisaun said.
Other operators in Belgium are also in process to deploy IoT networks across the country. Earlier this month, Orange Belgium announced the availability of narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) and LTE-M technologies on the whole Belgian territory, reaching nationwide coverage both indoors and outdoors.
Orange Belgium also said that it is currently using its mobile IoT network together with the Flemish government for a project with connected bikes in collaboration with its partners Huawei and Sensinxs. The telco said that IMEC is also testing a smart plug project as part of Antwerp’s City of Things program. Orange has also teamed up with CommuniThings for smart parking solutions.
Orange highlighted that the mobile IoT technologies bring a different approach to LPWA technologies. Apart from the extended battery life and the minimal cost of the radio modules, NB-IoT and LTE-M also enable full bidirectional communication between the object and the network allowing firmware software updates over the air, the telco said.
