MTN and Huawei have announced the launch dates for Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) solutions in Nigeria and other African countries
The Low Power Wide Area technology will be rolled out in Nigeria by the end of 2018 and launched in South Africa next year.
The mobile operator and Huawei noted efficiencies that can be a result from adopting the technology, which connects objects needing a long battery life and located in remote areas to the Internet through mobile connectivity.
“In Africa, around 60mn IoT devices are connected today. These connections are found across different industries including mining, financial services, automotive industry, connected homes and even government. The prediction by GSMA is that 450mn homes will be connected around the world by 2020, " stated Alpheus Mangale chief enterprise business officer at MTN.
“We conducted a number of pilot sites, along with Huawei, at our sites in Gauteng. We looked at smart metering, connected fridges ... but our intention is to roll out this service in South Africa in 2017 where we can actually partner with utility companies in the country to look after the scarce resource of water by reducing leakages in the environment and that users don't get overbilled," added Mangale.
