By TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG – HUAWEI South Africa has hailed its recognition by the GSMA at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai this week.
The company received the “Best IoT Innovation for Mobile Networks” Award for its NB-IoT solution, an accolade local officials said was a great honour and a boost for its efforts to accelerate the development of then Internet of Things in South Africa.
Huawei’s NB-IoT solution was cited for its outstanding achievements and contributions in technological innovation, industry research, and applied practice.
“This is a great accolade and it gives us more confidence as we work together with our customers and partners toward the standardisation of NB-IoT; this technology gives carriers a better position in the IoT value chain,” said Zhu Ming, Huawei’s IoT Regional Director.
The goal of the Huawei NB-IoT solution is to jointly build a better connected IoT solution and ecosystem with operators and partners from a diverse range of vertical industries.
Huawei and MTN are already working together in the IoT space, which is focused on Smart Refrigeration, Smart Water and Usage-based Insurance Solutions.
Vodacom recently partnered with Huawei to successfully launch Africa’s first live NB-IoT site, which is fully compliant with the standardised 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) NB IoT specifications.
In 2017, Huawei is scheduled to deploy over 30 NB-IoT networks for Utility, Smart City, Smart Agriculture, and other sectors in more than 20 countries across the globe.
“In Africa the opportunity is great for using Narrow Band IoT solutions (NB-IoT), because this network gives us wide and deep coverage and devices that are deployed have a very long battery life,” said Ming.
Accepting the award in Shanghai, China, Jiang Wangcheng, President of Huawei IoT Solution, said the award embodied recognition of the remarkable progress Huawei made in promoting NB-IoT technological innovation.
– Guardian