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November 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Russian phone companies embrace the Internet
of Things
In early October, major Russian mobile phone operator Megafon announced a IoT tariff plan, claiming the status of a pioneer in this fast grow- ing segment.
Megafon's IoT tariff could be applied to devices using the Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB- IoT) standard, designed for low-volume data exchange. Users will be able to take advantage of a dedicated APN network that will ensure safety and security of information obtained from devices, Megafon said.
In September another mobile phone major Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), said that it had completed the creation of an infrastructure for a nationwide IoT network. The company said it had deployed NB- IoT networks in nearly two dozen cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Vladi- vostok and Nizhny Novgorod.
MTS' plans include establishing NB-IoT networks in all Russian cities with a population of over 1mn people and a few other major cities by the end of the year.
Another major local mobile phone provider, VimpelCom that operates under the Beeline brand, has been lagging behind its peers. It has been running a pilot IoT project based on Erics- son equipment in the Smart Quarter in Moscow's Maryino neighbourhood, but there has been no word on a nationwide network so far.
M2M solutions offered by mobile phone provid- ers are likely to come in handy for companies that have embraced cutting-edge technologies and use the exchange of data between devices. IoT solutions have been rolled out in transport and logistics, oil and gas and municipal services.
Meanwhile, the IoT segment is still in its formative stages globally and is expected to truly take off around 2019-2020 as the number of manufactur- ers of equipment that supports NB-IoT increases.
Over the next five years, mobile phone opera- tors and equipment manufacturers will have to find balance between price and quality and, as a result, customers will have access to high-quality and affordable IoT services, Pavel Ivanchenko, director for development of M2M/IoT products at Megafon, was quoted as saying by IoT.ru.
However, the segment will heavily depend on global electronics manufacturers, such as Apple, Samsung and Huawei, added Alexander Trubitsyn, business development director at Lartech.
"If such major companies support the introduc- tion of NB-IoT, we will see growth in the market of IoT devices," he explained. "Otherwise, the NB-IoT standard could become just one of many or be incorporated into another standard."
"Huawei is actively promoting NB-IoT in China, where the standard enjoys preferences from the government," he went on to say. "But the Chinese experience is linked to the development of the smart city concept, in which commercialization is a very difficult task."
Another obstacle in the way of developing IoT in Russia is the fact that local enterprises are largely
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