Du this week revealed it has tested what it claims is the Middle East’s first Internet of Things (IoT) network.
Details are scant about what exactly the test entailed, other than that the U.A.E. telco has adopted long range WAN (LoRaWAN) technology to underpin its network, and recently showed off its capabilities to business leaders at an event in Dubai.
"We need a new breed of ‘sensor friendly’ network to establish the smart city ecosystem – thanks to Du, this capability now exists in the U.A.E.," said Carlos Domingo, senior executive officer at Du’s new business and innovation division, in a statement on Wednesday.
LoRaWAN uses unlicensed spectrum to transmit small quantities of data over long distances to a large number of connected devices in a way that is power efficient.
It is backed by the LoRa Alliance, an industry group that counts Cisco, IBM, Proximus, Bouygues, KPN and Swisscom, among others, as members. South Korea’s SK Telecom also recently joined.
"Existing networks are not designed to transmit data between millions of sensors across large areas," Du said. "IoT requires a new type of low power consumption, long range network, which prolongs the battery life of sensors, making it both cost and energy efficient."
