Telia Norway pilots NB-IoT for smart parking and smart agriculture

Telia Norway is piloting NB-IoT on a commercial network to support smart parking and smart agriculture applications. In both pilots, Telia is testing end-to-end solutions, spanning connected devices, the radio network, the core network, an IoT platform and data analytics. Telia Norway is upgrading base stations across its network to support NB-IoT in the 800MHz spectrum band.

The smart parking pilot in Oslo enables participants to see real-time information on parking availability in a mobile app. Telia has partnered with specialist APX Systems to embed five connected sensors in the tarmac in outdoor parking spaces.

Developed with equipment maker 7Sense, the smart agriculture pilot employs two connected sensors to enable farmers to monitor compost and irrigation systems via a responsive web portal. 7Sense is looking for NB-IoT to provide better coverage and battery life than is possible with other forms of connectivity, underpinned by the ease of use and the quality of service provided by the cellular network.

For both the pilots, Telia is using Huawei network equipment and u-blox modules.

Key learnings

In the pilots, which began in November 2016, Telia is exploring how to commercialise the applications together with partners. The operator has found there is a strong business case for using NB-IoT for smart agriculture solutions. In the case of smart parking, Telia believes it may need to develop a broader solution that will enable drivers to reserve and pay for parking, as well as locate empty spaces.

Next steps

Having upgraded six base stations to support NB-IoT by the end of 2016, Telia Norway plans to roll the technology out across its network during 2017. Once it can secure more NB-IoT modules, the operator also plans to pilot further use cases in respond to demand from multiple partners.

Telia anticipates large volumes of NB-IoT modules will become available in the second quarter of 2017, paving the way for the launch of commercial services in the second half of the year. The operator expects very strong demand for low cost, low power, wide area connectivity from a variety of industries.