Orange has banded together with hardware, software, design, and manufacturing companies in the IoT space to accelerate deployment of cellular IoT in Europe. Canadian module maker Sierra Wireless, French-Italian chip maker STMicroelectronics, and French manufacturing and design firm Lacroix are its new crewmates, working together as ‘IoT Continuum’, to provide “pre-integrated building blocks” for enterprises to catch sail on the rolling IoT wave.
The quartet said they will “simplify” and “scale” IoT to drive digital change among “international businesses” in industrial markets, notably in smart buildings, automotive, health, cities and manufacturing. The companies are focused on promoting “massive IoT over LTE” – or Cat M and Cat 1 LTE-M – as well as 5G. Solutions will be based on eSIM tech. Europe is the focus, but a press statement declared the group’s intention to go “beyond”, as well.
The companies, claiming to bring ‘full-stack’ IoT expertise “under one roof” for the first time, talked up “significant CAPEX savings” for enterprises in a press statement. A joint consultancy offer, offered through Orange enterprise division Orange Business Services (OBS), and also made available to IoT resellers, will hinge on a “three-step process” in four (!) parts – “start, prove, deploy and scale”, the press statement read. The logic is “to support… ideation to industrialization, without having to liaise with multiple players”.
The group will look to define a matrix-style menu system as a basis to more easily tailor IoT solutions, and collaborate on proofs, field tests, and commercial releases. Whether or not the new ‘IoT Continuum’ grouping represents a ‘first’ in the IoT sector, the initiative is firmly a part of a gathering trend to simplify bespoke diagnosis and prescription for enterprises looking to mainline digital change. The various ‘co-creation’, ‘building block’, and ‘takeaway’ elements are also characteristic of the market’s attempts to industrialise IoT technologies.
The statement said: “The partners will provide… a set of components and solutions validated on the Orange network, and the necessary tools to deploy wide-scale IoT on cellular networks. [This will] reduce the complexity, development time, and cost for businesses to realize IoT by providing pre-integrated building blocks. [Partners will] provide guidance to ease the process and help customers maximize benefits to scale IoT deployments economically.”
The partners stated: “We joined forces and created the IoT Continuum to streamline the management of cellular IoT projects in Europe and beyond. By combining our various expertise and knowledge of the IoT industry, we create a joint and unique offering to meet market demand and bring customers to more successful at scale IoT deployments on cellular networks, furthering the digital transformation of international businesses, no matter their vertical.”
Seperately, Orange has a deal with Lacroix Group to deploy an indoor 5G network from Ericsson to run the rule over its value as a springboard for Industry 4.0, and as a foundation stone for its ‘flagship’ new ‘factory-of-the-future’.
