NB-IoT: a perfect match for many Smart City use cases

The Internet of Things is all around us, even though it’s not always obvious, and it’s growing rapidly as more and more physical objects around us are connected. . The question is, how to connect all the billions of devices that are expected to make up the IoT without incurring huge costs? At Deutsche Telekom, we believe that Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) is the perfect solution to support our IoT business, including smart city solutions.

We would even say that NB-IoT is  a game changer for the IoT and the smart cities of the future. And apart from the bandwidth it uses, there is nothing narrow about NB-IoT. In fact, this new low power wide area technology enables a very broad range of new IoT applications. Unlike existing mobile communications networks, it is well suited for applications that don’t use much data, supports lots of small and simple devices with low energy consumption and very long battery lives at a low cost, and provides much better coverage indoors. In other words, it’s specifically designed to enable the IoT.

Supporting smart cities
What difference will this make to you? Let’s take the example of smart cities – which represent an important part of the larger IoT story. Many solutions are now being implemented to ensure that our cities are sustainable for the future as populations grow. That means our towns and cities are becoming smarter as sensors and software are embedded into buildings, meters, street lights, parking spaces  and waste management systems — to name just a few well-established smart city applications.

Preparing the way towards 5G
The other good news is that because NB-IoT is based on LTE, it uses existing mobile network sites to provide a reliable and secure network withvery good coverage in most cities. At Deutsche Telekom, we’re convinced of its merits and are already deploying the technology in a number of European markets. Moreover, the benefits of NB-IoT extend well beyond LTE: it is designed for large-scale use, enabling to connect millions of devices and can therefore be seen as precursor for 5G, Deutsche Telekom’s completely new network concept, which integrates fixed and mobile networks.