Telstra and Swedish telecom vendor Ericsson have announced a new software-based breakthrough that significantly extends NB-IoT range without any changes to existing physical hardware.
Ericsson’s enhancement increases the practical 3GPP standards-based coverage from roughly 40 km to about 100 km, and it can be enabled through software updates on current NB-IoT equipment.
Emilio Romeo, Ericsson’s Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, said:
“This game-changing capability builds on Ericsson’s long history of delivering extended range cellular solutions. We’re partnering with Telstra to deliver its customers a world-leading capability in NB-IoT extended range cells and demonstrating the huge opportunity that IoT represents in rural and regional areas for both Australia and globally, particularly for logistics and agriculture.”
The upgrade builds on Telstra’s established leadership in Australia as the only national provider offering both NB-IoT and Cat M1 technologies, and one of the first operators globally to do so.
Telstra launched Cat M1 the previous year, covering approximately three million square kilometres, and introduced NB-IoT in January 2018.
With Ericsson’s software enhancement, Telstra’s NB-IoT footprint now reaches around three and a half million square kilometres, improving access and reliability for IoT devices across a broader area.
Channa Seneviratne, Telstra’s Executive Director of Network Engineering, commented:
“Telstra already had Australia’s largest IoT coverage with Cat M1 across our 4G metro, regional and rural coverage footprint. With this NB-IoT extended range feature, we have now extended our coverage to more than three and a half million square kilometres, delivering our customers the best IoT coverage and capability in the country. Once again Telstra, working closely in partnership with Ericsson, has delivered innovation that ensures the benefits of IoT technology can be enjoyed by the largest number of Australians, not just those in the cities and towns.”
Telstra and Ericsson first showcased the extended-range NB-IoT capability at the Telstra Vantage Conference held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre on September 19–20, 2018.
During the conference, Telstra highlighted practical applications for extended-range NB-IoT such as smart water meters for leakage prevention and environmental monitoring to help keep oceans and estuaries free from contaminants. These use cases demonstrate how IoT can aid utilities and environmental managers to better track, monitor, and conserve water resources.
The demonstration used a Captis NB-IoT temperature sensor located 94 km from the Telstra base station on Mount Cenn Cruaich in New South Wales, illustrating the extended reach achievable with the software upgrade.
The network’s ability to reach challenging locations was also shown by connecting a sensor three floors below ground in an underground parking structure in central Sydney—an area where standard LTE signals could not reliably reach.
What are your thoughts on Ericsson’s NB-IoT achievement? Let us know in the comments.
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