The launch aligns itself with Orange’s mission to serve the connected object market and its commitment to deploy LET-M and LoRa as its leading internet of things (IoT) across its European footprint.
The news follows the opening of Orange’s first LTE-M networks in Belgium in May of this year, the company says it will launch more LTE-M network in Span and Romania by the end of 2018.
The combination of LTE-M and LoRa will allow Orange to fully support the burgeoning IoT market and address a broad range of use-cases. Each technology will be selected on a country by country basis.
LTE-M is designed for connected objects and once deployed on Orange’s 4G networks will address devices on the move, in buildings or underground. Therefore, it is ideal for logistical monitoring, tele-monitoring, remote assistance and fleet management. In addition, LTE-M benefits from all other 4G features such as security, real-time connectivity and international roaming.
Conversely, LoRa is a technology that addresses very low battery power consumption use-cases with inexpensive modules and a vast ecosystem. Orange has been a long time user of LoRa technology launching a national network in France with approximately 250 corporate customers using it.
Since the launch of its first LTE-M network in Belgium, Orange has been carrying out trials of the technology in several other European markets throughout the year enabling customers, partners and device manufacturers to develop different use-cases across different sectors like electricity, gas and water, industry and logistics. Once the launches in Spain and Romania take place, further pilots in other European markets will continue.
Additionally, through Orange’s enterprise division, Orange Business Services, the company will now offer LTE-M technology to all companies in the French metro area who have subscribed to its 4G IoT offer. LTE-M compatible devices will also be available by the end of the year on the Orange Business Services marketplace, Datavenue Market.
