Vodafone Expands IoT Coverage to 98% of the UK

Vodafone has seen increased demand across different industries for a connectivity solution that can support use cases such as industrial and commercial metering, water monitoring, asset tracking, and smart city applications, including air quality monitoring. NB-IoT supports applications where the lowest possible connectivity cost is essential to the viability of the business case. Vodafone’s NB-IoT network is already being used by customers across multiple industries. With a NB-IoT offering complementing existing mobile coverage, Vodafone is able to create tailored connectivity solutions for different IoT cases, rather than relying on a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
Anne Sheehan, Business Director, Vodafone UK, said:

NB-IoT is a part of our network that is often overlooked, but it is becoming increasingly important, bringing data from a growing variety of devices to power decision-making in more organizations. This is a network which has been designed for low-bandwidth devices, allowing for coverage that goes beyond 4G, and devices where battery life could be extended to as long as ten years. In IoT, customers might want to use our 4G network for real-time, data-intensive analytics, while others might need a connectivity solution for non-time sensitive use cases, such as environmental monitoring.

As the network is designed for devices with lower bandwidth requirements, NB-IoT provides coverage beyond the traditional mobile footprint. For use cases where lower signal is sufficient, Vodafone’s NB-IoT network will exceed 98% geographical coverage (both indoor and outdoor). For stronger signal requirements (-118dBm) it reaches 87% geographical coverage. For all areas not covered by NB-IoT today, Vodafone plans to work with customers to upgrade and add infrastructure on a case-by-case basis.

Author: Rainer Claaßen
Image Credit: Vodafon