Vodafone Romania has launched the first live NB-IoT network in Romania with a country-wide coverage, prepared to provide its enterprise customers the possibility to develop and implement a wide range of solutions and applications to improve their business processes. This national premiere comes shortly after a successful NB-IoT test realised by Vodafone Romania and OMV Petrom on equipment located in the proximity of producing wells, in very isolated areas where there is no internet access neither GSM coverage. “Vodafone Romania takes a further step into an era of interconnected people and devices by launching the first NB-IoT network in South-Eastern Europe. This launch consolidates our leadership position on the IoT market and will support a comprehensive portfolio of applications that will bring our clients a large set of benefits, like greater business insights, reduced costs and improved employee productivity”, stated Valeriu Nistor, Director Enterprise Business Unit, Vodafone Romania.
The NarrowBand-IoT technology offers great power efficiency, so devices connected through NB-IoT can run for 10 years on a single battery charge, while its low bandwidth requirements mean that most use cases require just a few bytes of data to be transmitted daily by these devices.
”We have upgraded our country-wide network to enable NarrowBand-IoT services as a normal step in a world where businesses are embracing large scale IoT projects. The NB-IoT technology is unlocking a new wave of applications that are part of the 5G era and have not previously benefited from connectivity due to barriers such as power, cost and propagation”, stated Catalin Buliga, Technology Director, Vodafone Romania.
NB-IoT has the potential to transform business models across a wide range of industries due to its very specific characteristics which make it ideal for connecting thousands, or even potentially millions, of devices in the field. It provides strong coverage over large areas, even when devices are underground or deep within buildings. It operates on a Licensed Spectrum which means applications using NB-IoT technology will benefit from the same level of security and reliability used in mobile networks today.
Vodafone Group has been actively deploying the NB-IoT technology in Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Turkey, Italy, Australia, South Africa and Germany. Vodafone has also established a network of NB-IoT test labs which provide the ideal pre-integration testing environment for application developers and device, module and chip manufacturers.
