This week at Mobile World Congress, two new global IoT machine networks were announced in the Middle East and Brazil to provide connectivity for IoT devices and applications across the world.
Ingenu Inc. and MEC Telematik announced a rollout of the Machine Network for IoT network connectivity across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, based on RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) technology. When launched, the Middle East network will be the world’s largest multi-country M2M/IoT network serving the countries of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and others.
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It will provide affordable and reliable connectivity for applications such as asset tracking, logistics, environmental monitoring and smart city, among others. MEC Telematik will fund and undertake the build-out of the Machine Network which will be largely completed by the end of 2017.
Introducing….RPMA
RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) technology is purpose-built for M2M/IoT connectivity, offering unparalleled range, coverage, and capacity with extremely low power requirements and longer-lasting battery life. It enables devices to connect more efficiently and cost-effectively in both the uplink and downlink. It also requires fewer towers to provide coverage to large areas (1:10 to 1:30 radio towers needed for RPMA vs. cellular).
“The Middle East is embracing the Internet of Things faster than any other region as it expands its focus on sustainability and smart technologies,” said Fred Wohl, CEO of MEC Telematik. “We selected Ingenu because its network is specifically designed for machine connectivity and we are thrilled to bring RPMA to countries in the Middle East, and serve the myriad of IoT opportunities that are ideally suited for this innovative technology.”
Increased IoT connectivity for Brazil
Datorá Telecomunicações Ltda has also chosen Ingenu’s RPMA IoT network to serve Brazil’s population of over 200 million, providing connectivity for applications like agriculture, environmental monitoring, logistics and smart city projects. Datora will deploy the Machine Network throughout Brazil, with expected completion in late 2018. The network will be integrated with its IoT Connectivity Abstraction Layer Solution (IoT CAL Solution), which allows different types of seamless connectivity for its clients.
“The Brazilian market is rapidly expanding its focus on IoT connectivity to bring useful new applications to the region,” said Tomas Fuchs, CEO of Datora Group. “Datora’s vast experience in providing IoT/M2M connectivity and Ingenu’s robust, reliable RPMA technology will provide unprecedented network availability for a host of IoT solutions and flexibility of integration with our IoT CAL Solution.”
“Ingenu’s partnership with Datora is the company’s largest deployment in the Latin American market to date,” said John Horn, CEO, Ingenu. “We are excited to align our global expansion with Datora, an established and profitable Brazilian company, to support the connectivity needs of this growing nation, and to extend the reach of our RPMA technology in Brazil.”
The announcement follows news last week that Brazil and the European Union plan to invest 16mn euros (US$16.8mn) in projects in the areas of the IoT cloud computing and 5G networks.The Brazilian science, technology, innovations and communications ministry, MCTIC, and the the national education and research network (RNP) opened registrations for the fourth Brazil-European Union coordinated ICT call.
