Nokia Networks and Oi Brasil have agreed to jointly accelerate the development of the Internet of Things ecosystem in Brazil.
The companies will set up an LTE IoT lab and create a working group to study solutions and opportunities in IoT, develop joint projects and test innovative solutions. The investments in innovation will be supported by a fund that will finance projects within IoT verticals such as agribusiness, connected cars, homes and smart cities and e-health. This initiative is based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both companies at Futurecom 2015.
The joint lab, focused on IoT using LTE, will be the first of its kind in Latin America. Expected to open in the first quarter of 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, the lab will bring advanced Cellular IoT solutions to the market, including LTE technologies for machine-to-machine communications, to meet the connectivity needs of future communication systems.
Through the IoT lab, Nokia Networks and Oi Brasil will engage in active collaboration with Brasil’s industry players. The companies will also promote knowledge sharing and joint research with universities and local R&D institutes to drive an open IoT ecosystem.
Key highlights of the IoT lab:
- Joint collaboration facility will develop cellular IoT solutions and future LTE-based applications to meet the extreme requirements of machine-type communications
- Offers great opportunities to enable new use cases within various verticals
- Drives IoT innovation in cooperation with ecosystem partners
Pedro Falcão, head of Network Technology and Systems, Oi Brasil
Pedro Falcão, head of Network Technology and Systems at Oi Brasil, said: “Oi is focused on driving innovative solutions to meet the needs of our customers in the fast-changing communications market. The new IoT lab in cooperation with Nokia Networks will allow us to come up with new technology ideas and place Brasil on the global map in terms of IoT development.”
Dimitri Diliani, head of Latin America Market at Nokia Networks, said: “Nokia Networks foresees a Programmable World of more than 50 billion connected things by 2025. >From cars, home appliances and smartphones to industrial equipment and health monitors, devices will be combined in extraordinary ways to improve lives and create boundless possibilities for people and businesses. Through our collaboration with Oi Brasil, we will develop solutions and mobile technology to capture the exciting new opportunities.”
Did you know?
- LTE is being developed to support Internet of Things as a pre-5G technology; it will enable a battery life of more than 10 years, four times more coverage, and minimal device costs to connect the billions of sensors and machines brought by the IoT
- LTE evolution to IoT is in the standardization phase and will include variants such as NB-LTE and LTE-M. Operators can deploy these on their existing LTE networks with a simple software upgrade
- Nokia Networks demonstrated a live LTE-M solution prototype at Mobile World Congress 2015 and recently launched its IoT connectivity solution for LTE networks, which makes existing infrastructures IoT ready
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