To cash in on the upcoming rapid development of global Internet of Things (IoT) applications, China's three telecom heavyweights are aggressively moving to promote IoT platforms and subsidize partners in developing relevant chips, modules and initial application platforms to accelerate multiple IoT applications.
Among them, China Telecom mapped out in October 2016 a plan to deploy 800MHz standalone NB (narrowband)-IoT networks, and established 300,000 NB-IoT base stations in May 2017. One month later, the company carried out NB-IoT all-network commercial deployments in the 800MHz band around China, marking the world's most extensive new-generation commercial NB-IoT network, according to company sources.
China Telecom teams up with Ericsson
In terms of IoT platform deployment, China Telecom launched an open IoT platform in June in collaboration with global partners including Ericsson. The platform now renders services to 24 IoT operators with a combined 1,700 corporate customers around the world, demonstrating its mature capacity for commercialization.
China Telecom has already secured mass production of NB-IoT chips by partners such as Hisilicon, Qualcomm and RDA, and has signed similar production contracts with Intel, Mediatek and China's Corn Devices and Sanechips Technology.
In addition, the company has also had quite a few partners mass produce NB-IoT modules, including Quectel Wireless Solutions, U-Blox, LongSung Technology, SIMCOM and Spreadtrum Communications, with Huawei and Fibocom Wireless among other production partners.
The company has appropriated CNY300 million (US$44.1million) in fund to subsidize the development of CAT M1 and NB-IoT modules, and implement concrete IoT application projects.
China Unicom nets over 50 million NB-IoT connections
Another telecom giant China Unicom completed trial construction of NB-IoT networks operating in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands in over five cities in China last year. This year, the company has set up over 50 million NB-IoT connections in more than 10 major cities in China including Shanghai, Beijing, Guanzhou and Shenzhen. China Unicom has partnered with Cisco Jasper's IoT platform, constituting the firm's largest advantage for IoT development.
China Unicom has teamed up with Qualcomm to develop 900MHz and 1800MHz NB-IoT modules. It has also launched, in cooperation with Ericsson, the world's first eMTC IoT system supporting VoLTE services, which incorporates Qualcomm's MDM9206 LTE-IoT modem designed as a global multi-mode connectivity solution.
Though a late entrant into the NB-IoT field, China Mobile is catching up quickly, as it is ready to promote NB-IoT and eMTC (enhanced machine-type communication) technologies simultaneously. The company is building mobile IoT networks in 346 China cities, with commercial operation of IoT networks to be available in tier-one cities by the end of 2017.
China Mobile: World's No. 1 provider of IoT connections
China Mobile expects to score a total of around 200 million smart IoT connections. As of May this year, the company already registered 120 million IoT connections, making it the world's largest provider of such connections, which are mainly seen in such sectors as Internet of Vehicles, smart bikes, banking, energy and wearable devices.
China Mobile's internally-developed OneNet platform has attracted 36,000 IoT developers with over 20,000 applications. The company is actively conducting the assembly of software and hardware by using basic communication kits, so as to lower the threshold for entering the development of IoT applications and reduce relevant costs. Some chip makers such as Sanechips Technology, Pango Microsystems, and Hisilicon have announced plans to offer chip solutions to support connections with the firm's OneNET platform.
In terms of NB-IoT modules, China Mobile has joined forces with related suppliers to offer four versions of modules, including internally-developed NB-IoT single-mode medium-sized module, the world's smallest NB-IoT M1 single-mode chips and NB-IoT/GSM twin-mode big-sized modules offered by Mediatek, and NB-IoT/eMTC/GSM three-mode large-sized module provided by SIMCom Wireless Solutions.
China Mobile expects to score a total of around 200 million smart IoT connections.
Photo: Company
Jean Chu, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES
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