Zain Saudi Arabia has conducted the trial of NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) technology at a live site in Mina area of Makkah Province.
The joint trial accelerates Zain’s initiatives in building smart cities across the Kingdom including Riyadh and Jeddah.
The NB-IoT trial used smart metering as a potential use case. Zain Saudi Arabia’s NB-IoT was applied to communicate temperature, humidity and air pressure from a remote location via a Nokia LTE base station at 900 MHz.
NB-IoT can be used in applications such as smart metering for electricity departments, smart parking and smart waste management. The trial follows the MoU signed by Nokia and Zain Saudi Arabia to collaborate on 5G and IoT development.
During the NB-IoT trial, Zain transferred data using Nokia’s LTE radio platform Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and Nokia’s professional services expertise, including system integration, network implementation, and care services.
“This Saudi-first IoT trial in a live network again shows our strong commitment to bring new services to make people’s lives more comfortable and productive,” said Abdulaziz AlDeghaither, chief technology officer of Zain Saudi Arabia.
