News
German incumbent offers two service plans, launches smart parking solution.
Deutsche Telekom on Monday launched its first two NB-IoT tariffs in Germany, and an NB-IoT-based smart parking service.
The entry-level package costs €199 and includes a six-month activation of up to 25 SIM cards, each with 500 KB of data. A private APN and IPsec key encryption is available as an optional add-on. The second tariff costs €299, and comes with all of the above, plus access to Deutsche Telekom’s Cloud of Things platform for device and data management.
"Narrowband IoT enables ambitious new business models, huge scale and a secure operating environment, which is exactly what our small and medium enterprise customers are looking for today as they increasingly move their business operations online," said Hagen Rickmann, head of Deutsche Telekom’s business customer division.
In addition to the two tariffs, the German incumbent has also rolled out an NB-IoT-based smart parking service in Hamburg. It combines sensor data with other information sources, including parking meters, to provide drivers with real-time information about 11,000 parking spaces in the city, and the option to book a space in advance. A further five cities, including Dortmund, plan to launch the service in their city centres.
Monday’s announcement is part of a broader European NB-IoT rollout by Deutsche Telekom.
"Its key advantages are the low cost factor due to low bandwidth demand, good in-building coverage, extremely long battery life of connected devices, as well as its usage of licensed spectrum and approved standardisation by 3GPP," Deutsche Telekom said.
It has already reached nationwide NB-IoT coverage in the Netherlands, and is busy building networks in Austria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. In the U.S., its T-Mobile unit plans to begin offering NB-IoT services from 2018.
IoT is a major topic at this year’s Total Telecom Congress, which takes place in London on 31 October-1 November. Senior speakers include Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, CTO, Deutsche Telekom. Click here to find out more.
