According to reports, the lab is situated on the roof of Vodacom’s data centre in Midrand, and it is the first step towards the development of a smart campus which will monitor and meter utilities on the network.
Says Vodacom IoT managing executive Deon Liebenberg: “Vodacom’s NB-IoT lab provides a controlled test environment and framework for customers and developers to develop hardware and applications as well as test their end-point devices on the NB-IoT network. Our ultimate goal is to nurture an ecosystem of developers, engineers and entrepreneurs for NB-IoT applications on the continent.”
The opening of the NB-IoT lab follows the mobile operator's recent announcement that it has successfully completed the launch of Africa's first live NB-IoT site, in partnership with Huawei.