China Telecom said it continued to expand coverage of its NB-IoT network across the country in the first quarter of the year.
The company said that this technology allows a wide range of applications including smart parking and smart manufacturing, among others.
The Chinese telco also highlighted that NB-IoT already represents over 60% of total IoT market in China.
During the first quarter of 2017, China Telecom has carried out outdoor tests of NB-IoT technology in 12 cities across China. In March this year, the operator had announced the release of what it claims to be the world’s first commercial NB-IoT technology-based smart water project, in partnership with Chinese utility Shenzhen Water. Under this project, the utility has already deployed approximately 1,200 NB-IoT-enabled smart water meters across the city.
Shenzhen Water has migrated the firm’s metering operations to the E-Cloud 3.0 platform of China Telecom Shenzhen to help further facilitate the implementation of the smart water plan. The telco has already deployed over 500 NB-IoT-capable base stations throughout Shenzhen to implement NB-IoT projects in the city.
Additionally, the telco is also working with with Shenzhen Gas to promote NB-IoT application in the gas industry, according to the report.
Earlier this week, the Chinese government said it wanted to accelerate the commercial deployment of NB-IoT across China and urged companies to promote the use of this technology.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the technology could be applied to the industrial internet, urban public service and management, among other sectors.
The world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, China Mobile is also engaged in the development of NB-IoT in the country. The telco has kicked off outdoor tests of the technology in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Fuzhou and confirmed plans to commercialize the service next year. China Unicom, meanwhile, said it expects to start commercial deployment of NB-IoT technology by the end of this year.
