Sierra Wireless, announced that Sagemcom, a European communications equipment provider, has selected modules from Sierra Wireless for its smart meters to be deployed by Enexis in the Netherlands.
Sagemcom’s X210 smart meter portfolio will be enabled by Sierra Wireless’ new HL7690 LTE Cat-1 embedded modules, which are part of the company’s AirPrime® HL Series product portfolio.
“We have long-term experience with Sierra Wireless and have been integrating their modules into many of our smart meter deployments in Europe because they deliver leading-edge cellular technology,” said Jean-Philippe Sacriste, energy department director at Sagemcom Energy & Telecom. “We’re pleased to work with Sierra Wireless to integrate their LPWA technology into our future products in order to deploy our LTE Cat-1 smart meter solution on time with Enexis.”
Enexis is the energy network company responsible for managing electricity and gas distribution in the north, east and south regions of the Netherlands with approximately 2.7 million connections to Dutch households. Enexis will be deploying two million smart electricity meters using 4G LTE, and Sagemcom will be supplying 50 percent of that deployment. During 2018, Enexis is planning on electricity meter deployments using LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) networks based on the latest LTE-M standard.
“For our national electrical smart metering project, we are pleased to be combining Sierra Wireless’ expertise in proven wireless solutions for the energy industry with Sagemcom’s experience in electrical smart metering,” said Jan Willem Janse, director Smart Meters at Enexis. “Sierra Wireless can provide innovative solutions to meet our requirements for a standardised cellular solution including its strong ecosystem knowledge and future-proof transition plan to LPWA networks.”
AirPrime HL Series modules from Sierra Wireless are the smallest embedded wireless modules (22 x 23 mm) to be completely interchangeable across 2G, 3G, 4G LTE and future LPWA technologies. The HL Series uses the new CF3™ form factor from Sierra Wireless, which is footprint compatible across product lines and network technologies and will remain fully interchangeable with future versions of the modules, including those for LPWA networks when they become available. LTE-M technology is expected to provide a highly efficient cellular LPWA technology option for smart metering and smart grid applications, with lower radio-frequency complexity, significantly reduced power consumption, and better in-building signal penetration.
“Our LTE Cat-1 and LPWA solutions are designed to meet the needs of our leading energy customers,” said Dan Schieler, SVP, OEM Solutions for Sierra Wireless. “And using our AirVantage® FOTA cloud-based platform, customers can easily upgrade device firmware over-the-air for millions of deployed devices at a time, ensuring they stay in service for many years while efficiently managing operating costs.”
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