The Silicon Review ^Asia

India’s largest Telecom Operator, Vodafone Idea Ltd plans to launch narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) within one year. The company has already carried out pilot programmes across four cities for several use cases.  The development came to the fore on Tuesday.

Nick Gliddon, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer of the company, while speaking to ET said, the company is looking to capture a good number of NB-IoT market which is expected to grow to Rs 5,000 crore in three years.

Vodafone Idea is ready to deliver NB-IoT across the country within a year as it has already rolled out commercial proof of concept in Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur,and Kochi.

The company is seeking to tap particular opportunities across smart cities and other specific applications before the first quarter of this year.  The NB-IoT network has been established with various devices and partners in order to test things such as smart parking, wearable, asset tracking, water meters, etc. For the company, small cities will speed up the growth along with utilities, smart meters, etc. Mr. Gliddon added.

NB-IoT, the next-gen technology standard mainly focuses on indoor coverage, connection density, budget-friendly costs, and good battery life. It will deliver enhanced and deeper network coverage for communication between machines by consuming less power among devices.

Other telecom providers like Reliance Jio has already rolled out an NB-IoT network last year in Mumbai. It is now commercially available for use. Bharati Airtel has conducted NB-IoT pilots too and intends to roll out the services soon.