Telenor Norway said it has opened a new laboratory to test innovations, focusing on the Internet on Things (IoT). The operator said it will open a new, national IoT grid on its 4G network on 01 October 2018. Telenor Norge CEO Berit Svendsen said the Innnovation Hub was a meeting place where developers and businesses could try out sensors and smart objects with Telenor's IoT and network specialists.
According to analysts TNS Kantar, one in two Norwegian companies has no connected devices on its network currently and four out of ten said they lacked the skills to realise the potential of the IoT.
Ove Fredheim, head of corporate business at Telenor Norway, said there are currently 1.2 million items connected to Telenor’s Norwegian network. It will open the new IoT grid on its LTE network in October, and in 2020, it expects there will be more devices than people connected to Telenor’s network.
Fredheim said that in 2017, Telenor had made its 4G grid available to certain IoT partners and customers for NB-IoT testing and prototyping in 26 locations. Ericsson had contributed its IoT expertise and equipment for a dedicated, virtual core network. The results of the pilots have been very promising, said Fredheim.
