Huawei and Portuguese electrical network manufacturer Janz have built the “world’s first” energy smart meter based on NB-IoT technology.
The meter, which was recently tested, will be demoed at the end of the year in Lisbon’s Parque das Nações, as part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 UPGRID smart energy project.
The meter was built using modules from Swiss IoT manufacturer u-blox, electricity supplier EDP Distribuição and Portuguese operator NOS, which has rolled out a NB-IoT network across the country.
The pilot project in Parque das Nações will run until 2017 and will involve around 100 customers. Two NOS base stations will provide the NB-IoT coverage to help consumers benefit from intelligent energy consumption.
Manuel Ramalho Eanes, Board Director of NOS, said: “We are really proud of NOS’ involvement in this innovative project, which will make a real difference in making electricity consumption more efficient in Portuguese homes in the near future.”
Chris Lu, Huawei Portugal Country Director, added: “This technology will be the driver for a faster IoT mass adoption due to its unique advantages.”
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Huawei has been one of the earliest champions of NB-IoT technology, originating back to when it bought UK IoT player Neul back in 2014.
Finland’s Sonera was the most recent telco to trial the technology and Deutsche Telekom the first to launch the technology on a live network last month.