Orange Business Services has accelerated its LTE-M strategy to support the development of internet of things (IoT) solutions for the enterprise market. This follows the announcement by Orange in February 2017 that the Group would be prioritizing LTE-M across its footprint in Europe, and today it announces significant progress.

LTE-M is an evolution of the LTE (or 4G) mobile network, which is designed to meet the lower consumption required by IoT applications. The network will be integrated into the Orange IoT strategy through the Datavenue IoT and Data Analytics offer.

In Belgium, Orange is preparing the opening of an LTE IoT City in Antwerp, open for customer pilots in Q4 2017. Where as in France, Orange is planning internal trials on both technical and usage aspects starting in Q4 2017. All of these trials are being carried out ahead of the LTE-M network launch in 2018.

In Spain, Orange has started several tests with strategic customers and device manufacturers in an open ecosystem of participation. The trials cover different sectors and applications, including smart utility, smart cities and facility management.

The availability of LTE-M is part of the Group’s dedicated program to support connected object and module makers. Orange welcomes object makers in its “Open IoT Lab” (compliant with GSMA) located at Orange Gardens. At this innovation site, the Group provides technical resources and expert support.

The availability of three LTE-M devices marks a new milestone in Orange’s continuous commitment to boost the IoT ecosystem. The first equipment Orange has tested on its LTE-M network includes

• rugged products designed to be used in asset tracking and Industry 4.0 use cases;
• a GPS personal tracker with a waterproof casing that is targeted at lone worker applications;
• a small GPS tracker developed for tracking valuable items.

The first samples of these products are now available for testing in customer pilots. The first wave of equipment tested by Orange on its LTE-M network includes products and modules includes rugged products from Ercogener, including a u-blox module; a GPS personal tracker designed by Meitrack, based on a Quectel module; a small GPS tracker developed by Sercomm with a Sequans Communications module.