New Zealand’s digital services firm Spark has completed the nationwide rollout of its Internet of Things (IoT) cellular network (Cat-M1).
This is expected to expand the range of things that businesses across New Zealand can connect to.
Spark said a wide variety of new and existing IoT solutions and services, including electricity, gas and water meters, asset tracking and monitoring, industrial automation and more will now have a reliable IoT network to work over.
The Cat-M1 network runs over Spark’s 4G mobile network to provide quality, medium-high bandwidth IoT connectivity, and capability. It was designed specifically for low-cost, long battery life devices that provide real-time data and now covers 98 percent of the country’s population, Spark said.
“We’re seeing IoT take off in New Zealand, and with the broader range of solutions Cat-M1 opens, we expect to be soon adding more than 2,000 new IoT devices a week,” said Michael Stribling Spark’s Digital Services Lead and Executive Council member of New Zealand IoT Alliance,
“It means more businesses will have access to data that enables us to make better decisions, problem solve and improve productivity,” he added.
Spark’s first customer to use the network is Trans-Tasman smart metering service intelliHUB.
intelliHUB Group Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Clark, said they are using Spark’s new Cat-M1 network to service its current nationwide deployment as it accelerates the installation of 150,000 smart meters to a large portion of its Trustpower’s customer base.
He said this development benefits the energy industry in New Zealand as the majority of smart meters are still operating on the old 2G phone networks.
Spark said the company will also be launching smart gas metering, solar monitoring and demand response applications.
