Nokia and Zain Saudi Arabia have taken a significant step towards the creation of an IoT ecosystem with the successful trial of NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) technology at a live site in Mina area of Makkah Province. In the trial - which used smart metering as a potential use case - NB-IoT was applied to communicate temperature, humidity and air pressure from a remote location via a Nokia LTE base station at 900 MHz, demonstrating the role NB-IoT could play in applications such as smart metering for electricity departments, smart parking and smart waste management.
The trial follows the MoU signed by Nokia and Zain Saudi Arabia to collaborate on 5G and IoT development. NB-IoT works in almost any environment, with its strong coverage capability connecting devices in hard-to-reach locations and its use of existing mobile networks allowing for the transfer of small data packets securely and reliably.
In addition, with NB-IoT's very low power consumption, device battery life can last about ten years. In the NB-IoT trial, data was transferred using Nokia's LTE radio platform Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and Nokia's professional services expertise, including system integration, network implementation, and care services.
