Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone complete European NB-IoT trial

GSMA, the association that represents global mobile network operators, has confirmed that Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone have completed Europe’s first international roaming trial using narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) technology.

The trials utilised low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks that have the capabilities to service millions of connections whilst ensuring seamless coverage.

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“Deutsche Telekom has successfully introduced and developed NB-IoT networks across most of its European footprint and we are very pleased to see the ecosystem rapidly expanding,” says Ingo Hofacker, responsible for the IoT business in the Deutsche Telekom Group.

“First commercial offers are available on a national basis already, but now, operators need to satisfy customer demand for international coverage and service continuity as well.”

GSMA claims that the success of these trials marks a key milestone for the telecommunications industry across Europe, and that these tests will provide crucial guidance to other operators looking to implement NB-IoT networks.

“The market has matured considerably in a very short time and we anticipate that this will be the year that Mobile IoT scales,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “Only licensed, managed mobile services can provide the secure low power connection that can meet future demand.”

GSMA’s own Mobile IoT initiative has helped to standardize LPWA, NB-IoT, LTE-M and 3GPP technologies across the industry.

To date, 29 mobile operators have launched 51 commercial mobile IoT networks globally.