PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As part of Orange’s ambition to succeed in the field of connected objects, Orange today announces the commercial launch of its Long Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M) network in France. The launch in France follows the opening of Orange’s first LTE-M network in Belgium in May 2018. Orange will launch further LTE-M networks in Spain and Romania by the end of 2018. The launches mark Orange’s progress in serving the connected object market and underline its commitment to deploy LTE-M and LoRa® as its leading IoT technologies across its European footprint.
Combination of IoT technology to address full range of IoT use-cases
The combination of LTE-M and LoRa® technologies will enable Orange to fully support the explosion in the IoT market and address the broad range of use-cases. Orange will select the appropriate technology on a country by country basis. LTE-M, which is a technology specifically dedicated to connected objects and deployed on Orange’s 4G networks will address objects that are on the move, in buildings or underground places. It is therefore suitable for logistical monitoring, telemonitoring, remote assistance and fleet management. Furthermore, LTE-M technology benefits from all the features of 4G including security, real-time connectivity and international roaming, thanks to broad support of the technology from other operators worldwide and already integrates with future 5G standards.
Complementary to this is LoRa®, a technology solution that addresses very low battery power consumption use-cases with (inexpensive) modules and with a large and growing ecosystem from sensors to applications. Orange has been a long-standing proponent of LoRa® technology deploying a national network in France which some 250 corporate customers already using it.
International footprint for IoT market
Following the launch of its first LTE-M network in Belgium, Orange has been undertaking extensive trials of LTE-M in several other European markets throughout 2018 allowing customers, partners and device manufacturers to test and develop different use-cases in different sectors of activity like utilities electricity, gas and water, industry and logistics. With the trials concluded, Orange will now also launch commercial LTE-M networks in Spain and Romania by the end of the year. Further pilots in Orange’s remaining European markets continue.
A dedicated and scalable LTE-M offer for France
Orange through its enterprise arm, Orange Business Services will now begin offering LTE-M technology to all companies in metropolitan France that have subscribed to its 4G IoT offer. Compatible with the entire IoT range of Orange Business Services, the LTE-M offer already includes the functionality of Power Saving Mode (PSM). This results in a breakthrough energy saving compared to 2G/3G/4G IoT contributing to more environmental friendly use cases and also reducing operation costs for our customers.
LTE-M compatible devices will be available by the end of the year on Datavenue Market, the Orange Business Services marketplace dedicated to IoT objects and connectivity.
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About Orange
Orange is one of the world’s leading
telecommunications operators with sales of 41 billion euros in 2017 and
150,000 employees worldwide at 30 September 2018, including 92,000
employees in France. The Group has a total customer base of 261 million
customers worldwide at 30 September 2018, including 201 million mobile
customers and 20 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present
in 28 countries. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and
telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand
Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new
strategic plan “Essentials2020” which places customer experience at the
heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully
from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks.
Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York
Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).
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