Telia Company is bringing waste disposal into the Internet of Things after signing what it is claiming is Norway’s largest NB-IoT contract.
The operator has signed a three year deal with waste disposal container tracking company StalkIT, spanning 100,000 connected devices.
It has developed a service that gives waste management companies the ability to track the location and status of their containers.
Einar Aaland, Chief Product Officer at StalkIT, said: “All our customers need to do now is to mount the tracking device on their containers and switch it on. Our tracking service will provide them with a complete overview of where the containers are and what status they have, and the investment will provide quick returns because processes can be automated and waste can be reduced.”
Jon Christian Hillestad, Vice President Enterprise at Telia Norway, said: “We are proud to have a wide-ranging agreement with an entrepreneurial company with great ambitions. It is very exciting to see our pilot project from this winter going commercial with the potential to expand beyond the Norwegian borders.”
It launched its NB-IoT network earlier this year and has recently completed nationwide coverage.
Across all of parent Telia Company’s opcos, the operator has held some of the quirkier trials of the technology, exploring how NB-IoT can be used in postboxes in Finland, construction in Norway, and tracking athletes in an Ironman competition.
While operators have been flocking to NB-IoT to offer new kinds of services to customers, a note of caution was sounded by ABI Research in July, when it said it and fellow cellular technology LTE-M would continue to face pressure from unlicensed technology such as LoRa and Sigfox.