News
U.K. facility designed to be a catalyst for ecosystem development.
Vodafone and Huawei on Friday agreed to establish a lab tasked with fostering the growth of the narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) ecosystem.
Based in Newbury, U.K., the NB-IoT Open Lab will work with industry players to develop and verify new network, application, and device integration solutions. It will also conduct business model research and product compliance certification.
"We’re delighted to be partnering with Huawei in the creation of this new Open Lab facility for NB-IoT. As the technology moves towards commercial deployment in early 2017, it’s essential that we start building a strong ecosystem with developers and solution providers," said Vodafone’s R&D director Luke Ibbetson, in a statement.
Ibbetson is also chairman of the NB-IoT Forum, an industry group formed in November 2015 to advocate for the NB-IoT standard.
NB-IoT lends itself well to operators since it uses small chunks of licensed spectrum to provide deep coverage of hard-to-reach places, supporting a large number of low throughput, low cost devices, consuming very little power.
According to Huawei and Vodafone, the first NB-IoT devices are expected to launch in late 2016 or earlier 2017.
Friday’s agreement "builds on Huawei’s existing strong relationships with Vodafone and our joint commitment to lead the development of NB-IoT technology and its eco-system," said David Wang, president of Huawei’s wireless product line.
