Orange has announced plans to advance its LTE-M strategy this year to support a broad range of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The operator will initially concentrate its LTE-M deployment in Europe, beginning roll-outs in Belgium and Spain before expanding across its wider European network. While KPN reported early LTE-M testing in Europe late last year, Orange is positioning itself to be among the first operators to offer commercially available LTE-M services.
“Future-proof, secure, and reliable connectivity is a key pillar of Orange’s IoT strategy. By collaborating with IoT partners, device manufacturers and innovators, we can accelerate development across the LTE-M technology chain and move toward the future of the Internet of Things,” said Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière, Executive Vice President Innovation, Marketing & Technologies at Orange.
As part of the announcement, Orange will launch several LTE-M pilots covering use cases such as smart electric meters for detailed energy monitoring and wearable devices for tracking health-related metrics. These pilots will run in partnership with chipset makers Altair Semiconductor, Qualcomm Technologies, and Sequans, alongside multiple network equipment vendors. The trials will validate LTE-M performance for low-power, wide-area IoT scenarios and help refine device and network integration.
To accelerate innovation and collaboration, Orange is opening what it describes as Europe’s first open lab dedicated to building the LTE-M IoT ecosystem. The lab opens on 1 April at Orange’s innovation campus in Châtillon, France, and is designed to give developers, manufacturers and solution providers hands-on access to technologies and expertise.
Participants at the open lab will be able to use:
- an IoT starter kit to prototype and test devices;
- network equipment for evaluating performance, low data rate handling, coverage extension and energy optimization features;
- Orange’s IoT & Analytics platform, a central element of the Orange Datavenue IoT offering;
- access to Orange technical experts, designers and go-to-market teams to explore industry-specific deployments across smart cities and territories, automotive and transportation, industry and manufacturing, healthcare and smart homes.
LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for Machines) is a low-power wide-area (LPWA) technology standardized to support large numbers of devices with minimal energy consumption, extended coverage and efficient data handling. Orange’s LTE-M plans extend its existing LPWA strategy, which began with a LoRa® network deployment in France earlier last year.
Orange’s LoRa® network already delivers indoor coverage to more than 2,000 towns, cities and industrial sites and supports more than 60 live business-to-business projects across sectors such as smart cities, smart building, parking, smart home, industry, supply chain, asset tracking and agriculture. Orange has indicated it will expand LoRa® coverage globally from July 2017, targeting focused deployments in cities, ports and industrial locations.
This move to add LTE-M complements Orange’s existing LPWA offerings and gives customers and partners more flexible connectivity choices for diverse IoT applications—from low-bandwidth meters and trackers to battery-sensitive wearable devices—while benefiting from Orange’s technical expertise and industry-focused go-to-market capabilities.
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