Orange this week shed more light on its Internet of Things (IoT) strategy, announcing the 17 launch areas for its Long Range (LoRa) IoT network and a cellular IoT trial with Ericsson.
As previously disclosed, the French incumbent plans to switch on its LoRaWAN network &nda sh; which uses unlicensed spectrum to transmit small amounts of data over long distances to myriad devices at low cost, using little power – in the first quarter of 2016.
On Wednesday, Orange said the network will initially go live in 17 urban areas, including Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice, Paris and Strasbourg (see below for the full list).
The telco is also offering start-ups a connected objects kit to help them develop prototypes that use LoRa technology. Prototypes can currently be used on two LoRa networks currently being trialled by Orange, one in Grenoble, the other in Paris.
Orange has also partnered with Ericsson to trial two cellular IoT technologies, one underpinned by 2G, the other based on 4G.
The 2G, extended coverage GSM (EC-GSM) trial will focus on providing IoT coverage in hard-to-reach places such as basements, while the LTE IoT trial will take place in partnership with chip maker Sequans and will test the viability of using cheap, simple devices for low-cost, low-power IoT services.
Orange and Ericsson aim to carry out the trials by the end of 2015 with a view to offering commercial services from 2017.
In addition, Orange has also expanded the scope and scale of its big data platform, Datavenue.
Instead of focusing on start-ups, Datavenue is now open to companies of all sizes, covering all sectors.
Two new features have also been added. The first is Live Objects, which enables customers to buy connected devices and sensors, and process, store and integrate the data they generate. The second is Flexible Data, which offers data analysis applications, a forum for sharing data, and cloud infrastructure for big data solutions.
IoT forms one of the pillars of Orange’s Essentials 2020 plan, under which the telco aims to become a key component of the IoT value chain, and generate €600 million of revenue from I oT and machine-to-machine (M2M) services by 2018.
Orange’s 17 LoRa launch areas:
Angers, Avignon, Bordeaux, Douai and Lens, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Rennes, Rouen, Toulon, Toulouse, Strasbourg.
