Telefónica Completes First NB-IoT Smart Meter Trial in Latin America

Telefónica in partnership with Huawei and a local smart meter company Kamstrup has successfully deployed their first project with real user’s data using NarrowBand IoT technology (NB-IoT). One of the leading water utilities in Chile has successfully tested connectivity management of a telemetry solution for residential water meters.

Telemetry will allow clients to know their day-to-day use, will facilitate actual invoicing by avoiding estimated use, and will detect leaks and abnormal situations in the home as well as not invoiced water flows. It will also offer the water network operation teams information regarding provision to the end customers.

NB-IoT is a low-power wide-area network connectivity, focussed on adapting devices to the needs of the Internet of Things market (IoT), thus enabling increased battery life, appropriate use-specific cost, wide coverage and indoor penetration. At the same time, the technology will allow for great scalability and comprehensive security. NB-IoT has been used to accelerate the creation of a service adapted to the needs of water telemetry, resolving management of the communications network of which Telefónica takes charge. 

Telefónica Chile’s R&D Centre, together with Huawei, was responsible for designing and planning the technical tests. This centre, a joint initiative between Telefónica and the Chilean government, specialises in developing technologies around IoT, particularly those associated with connectivity and low power networks, which are fundamental to sector development.

Telefónica and the other companies that have participated in this first experimental client pilot plans are to expand in the near future to more than 300 residential water meters by reusing the 700 MHz LTE network and thereby demonstrating how public service companies can achieve efficient operations through IoT solutions.