Vodafone UK expands IoT coverage
July 20, 2021
Vodafone has doubled the number of sites in its Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) network to meet increasing demand for Internet of Things (IoT) services. Vodafone NB-IoT coverage now reaches 98 per cent of the UK.
NB-IoT is a low power, wide area network (LPWAN) technology, designed to enable efficient communication across wide geographical footprints, or deep within urban infrastructure. NB-IoT supports long battery life and reduced costs for devices with low data demand.
Vodafone has seen increased demand across numerous industries for a connectivity solution that can support use cases such as industrial and commercial metering, water monitoring, asset tracking, and smart city applications, including air quality monitoring. NB-IoT supports applications where the lowest possible connectivity cost is essential to the viability of the business case.
Vodafone’s NB- IoT network is already being used by customers across multiple industries, including SES Water and United Utilities to detect leaks in underground pipes and other infrastructure.
With an NB- IoT offering complementing existing mobile coverage, Vodafone says it can create tailored connectivity solutions for different IoT cases, rather than relying on a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
Anne Sheehan, Business Director, Vodafone UK, said: “NB-IoT is a part of our network that is often overlooked, but it but it is becoming increasingly important, bringing data from a growing variety of devices to power decision-making in more organisations. This is a network which has been designed for low-bandwidth devices, allowing for coverage that goes beyond 4G, and devices where battery life could be extended to as long as ten years. In IoT, customers might want to use our 4G network for real-time, data-intensive analytics, while others might need a connectivity solution for non-time sensitive use cases, such as environmental monitoring. We have invested in NB-IoT because we want to offer our customers the right tools for the right job, in a way which is affordable and accessible for every customer.”