According to Light Reading, Vodafone hopes to put pressure on other IoT connectivity rivals through its first commercial NB-IoT rollout next year. NB-IoT is basically the mobile operator's response to and answer to the LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technology IoT phenomenon. As competing technologies in this area, NB-IoT intends to provide network connectivity over a longer range at a lower cost than existing cellular network standards. This makes it ideal for scenarios where there is a large number of devices that transmit a small amount of bandwidth and can be used for many years in service. The technical dispute has never stopped However, while 3GPP is in the process of developing the NB-IoT standard, companies outside the mobile industry have been developing and deploying LPWAN technologies that use unlicensed spectrum. These include Ingenu in the United States, Sigfox in France, and Semtech in California, where LoRa technology has attracted the support of large mobile operators, including Orange in France and SK Telecom in South Korea. All of these LPWAN companies have been working hard to make progress, and NB-IoT is still in a lab state and may not be commercially available until 2017. In fact, Landau Garner, Ingenu's chief marketing officer, told Light Reading recently that the NB-IoT platform may take at least two years to "service" despite acknowledging the challenges NB-IoT poses. Earlier this year, some people even said that the NB-IoT standard may not be included as scheduled in this month's 3GPP R13 will be launched, on the contrary will be delayed to R14 inside. Vodafone denied the possibility at the opening of its NB-IoT lab in Newbury, England, at the end of April, and said in a statement that "the complete 3GPP standard is coming soon." "We are preparing for full commercial use of NB-IoT in 2017." wrote Luke Ibbetson, Vodafone's R & D director and current chairman of the NB-IoT Forum, on a Vodafone blog. Heavy Reading senior analyst Steve Bell and Gabriel Brown believe that Vodafone's NB-IoT leadership position should greatly enhance NB-IoT's growth in the increasingly competitive LPWAN market. "Vodafone's plans are radical, but not without challenges," Bell said. "However, such a leadership position is necessary for accelerating technological attractiveness in the increasingly competitive LPWAN market." Unexpectedly, Vodafone is very optimistic about the technology in its recent statement on NB-IoT, and even claimed that NB-IoT will make the competition technology disappear. "NB-IoT will shatter Sigfox and LoRa technologies because it means there's no longer any need for these technologies," said Matt Beal, director of innovation and architecture at Vodafone. However, the early arrival of NB-IoT appears to be really bad news for the proprietary LPWAN technology based on unlicensed spectrum, as congestion and interference surround the latter. As operators try to avoid being "locked in" to a particular technology, "proprietary" has quickly become a dirty word in the telecommunications industry. While supporters of Sigfox and LoRa insist that their technology is open, intellectual property ultimately ends up being controlled unilaterally. If Ingenu, LoRa, and Sigfox get enough support before NB-IoT arrives, they can be hard to shake. But the latest announcement by Vodafone shows that time is running out and no one of these technologies has won overwhelming support so far. Sigfox claims to have launched networks in 18 countries and already has about 7 million connections, but reportedly earned just 5.7 million U.S. dollars last year. Ingen claims to have partners in 53 countries, but seldom talks about the commercialization of its technology. At the same time, LoRa did win the support of several major mobile operators, but some operators are apparently doing both. Orange, which is building a LoRa network in France, said it will eventually deploy the 3GPP standard. In the meantime, SK Telecom, which is deploying LoRa technology and Sigfox investors, also said that there are currently "no conclusions" on the many LPWAN technologies, including Sigfox, LoRa and other LTE technology-based standards. Vodafone's promotion Bell said NB-IoT relies heavily on Vodafone's active activities. "The importance of trial testing is that this will be the lesson learned from the RAN and the rest of the network being optimized to use this technology and will be working on different data types, offering new services and working with existing businesses Interoperable, "he said. Vodafone has been conducting pre-standard NB-IoT trials in Turkey and Spain, which operators use to link sensors in parking lots. In Spain, Vodafone is also working with the tap water company Aguas de Valencia on smart meter projects. Based on Ibbetson's remarks at the recent LPWA 2016 conference, Bell speculates that Vodafone will first launch its commercial NB-IoT service in Spain. He also predicts that vendors will begin shipping NB-IoT chips in September, while Altair Semiconductor will be the first to ship NB-IoT chips. Obviously, it remains to be seen how Vodafone can rapidly build and operate an NB-IoT network. However, Ibbetson believes that about 85% of Vodafone's base stations support NB-IoT with a simple software upgrade. This number has increased to 95% in some markets, such as the Netherlands. "We have already started to upgrade our core and wireless networks and we expect to launch services in the markets where Vodafone will be involved in 2017," Ibbetson wrote in his blog. "Although there is still a lot of work to be done, we think this may be the fastest technology we have ever introduced."