Zain Kuwait has launched its ‘Zain Life’ smart home/digital entertainment brand, offering consumers connected home packages initially including security and safety solutions plus digital entertainment solutions through the PlayStation VR device. The operator promises to add more products and services to the range in the coming year.
UAE-based operator Etisalat is launching a smart metering project with the Federal Electricity & Water Authority (FEWA), connecting and monitoring devices via Etisalat’s M2M Control Centre portal, covering 24,000 smart meters. In July 2017 Etisalat claimed the first commercial launch of NB-IoT and LTE-M IoT technologies in the Middle East and North African region.
Ooredoo Qatar has announced that it is developing its IoT service range using the Software AG ‘Cumulocity’ platform, supporting services for B2B customers combining integrated live data analytics visualisation with scalable storage and device security.
Spark New Zealand has confirmed that its LoRaWAN IoT network will launch commercially by the end of this month, whilst announcing that one of its first customers, Levno, will use the new network from the start of April, initially for a fuel tank monitoring service. Note that Spark is following a dual IoT strategy, also trialling Cat-M1 (LTE-M) IoT technology across its 4G cellular network.
South Korea’s KT Corp is expanding a partnership with defence industry electronics firm Hanwha Systems to jointly develop IoT capabilities in the defence field, according to the Korea Times.
Telia Sweden has joined a Stockholm smart city collaborative project – Digital Demo Stockholm – a joint initiative of The City of Stockholm, the county council, The Royal Institute of Technology, Ericsson, Vattenfall, ABB, Skanska and Scania. A water monitoring system is among the IoT projects being undertaken under the initiative.
Swedish utility and fibre-optic infrastructure operator Bjare Kraft is partnering Oresundskraft to deploy a network of LoRa IoT base stations complementing its electricity and fibre networks.
Lastly, Norway’s Telenor has officially opened its ‘IoT ProtoLab’ in Trondheim in partnership with Wireless Trondheim, designed to collaborate with entrepreneurs, scientists and students on development of IoT services and products.
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