TIM, Huawei partner to develop IoT solutions for mobile networks

TIM and Huawei have signed in the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development of IoT solutions on Narrowband IoT technology (NB-IoT), aimed at growing and sustaining this new market.

Thanks to this agreement TIM and Huawei continue their collaboration on NB-IoT technology that started in 2015. In fact, in Turin TIM will open the first Open Lab for research and innovation in Italy dedicated to “NB-IoT”, open for companies and developers to support and accelerate the growth of Internet of Things services and the progress of industrial applications.

TIM and Huawei will perform laboratory and field trials on NB-IoT solutions together with partners from vertical industries, thus promoting the fast improvement and deployment of this technology on the market.

This agreement represents an important step for the evolution of the 4G mobile network and future 5G towards Internet of Things, a sector in strong development in ICT that will further boost innovation in the market thus providing an important opportunity for the communications industry. NB-IoT technology enables low power consumption, better coverage and the possibility to connect great numbers of objects in a convenient way: all required features for Internet of Things. This technology can be applied to remote meter reading, asset tracking, smart agriculture, as well as on security, finance, transportation and industrial automation.

Gabriela Styf Sjoman, Head of TIM’s Engineering & TILab said: "We are very optimistic on the development of Internet of Things services that will represent one of the main areas of innovation for TIM. This collaboration with Huawei will accelerate the international standardization and will stimulate industrial synergies with other partners, anticipating the design of innovative solutions and services.”

Chaobin Yang, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Wireless Network Product Line, commented: "The mobile communications industry is entering the 4.5G era, where IoT will be one of the main innovations. The NB-IoT technology will allow operators to offer IoT applications in a fast and competitive way anticipating a new innovation phase. This cooperation will accelerate the NB-IoT commercialization progress and application in more vertical industries