According to a recent announcement, Qualcomm (News - Alert) plans to commence the first eMTC/NB-IoT/GSM (LTE Cat M1/NB1 and E-GPRS) multimode field trials in China, with China Mobile Research Institute (CMRI) and China's leading smart bike sharing company, Mobike. The field trials will use China Mobile (News - Alert)'s 2G/4G multimode network, Mobike's smart lock, and Qualcomm Technologies' MDM9206 global multimode LTE modem for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
“China Mobile Research Institute has been actively boosting the development of IoT and exploring new IoT business opportunities,” said Huang Yuhong, DGM, China Mobile Research Institute. “This planned field trials with Qualcomm Technologies and Mobike will further expand the applications for LTE (News - Alert) IoT (eMTC/NB-IoT) in areas such as smart bike sharing and smart travel. We will conduct cross-industry integration and innovation to boost ubiquitous IoT solutions and the smart IoT life by jointly working with the China Mobile 5G Joint Innovation Center, and taking full advantage of China Mobile's vast GSM network and technology leadership in eMTC/NB-IoT.”
The tools are designed to work together to help Mobike customers accurately identify an available bike, accelerate the unlock process of the smart lock and assist with real-time management and provide Mobike with continuous monitoring of the bike's status. The trial between Qualcomm Technologies, Mobike and CMRI marks an important step in the effort by leading wireless and consumer services companies to bring the benefits of global multimode LTE for IoT to millions of users and a large number of industrial enterprises.
“We are committed to providing IoT-optimized solutions that address demands from our customers to bring a new range of applications and services built on the reliability, efficiency and global scale of LTE IoT cellular connectivity,” said Way-Shing Lee, VP, technology, Qualcomm Technologies. “Through this cooperation with China Mobile Research Institute and Mobike on the first multimode eMTC/NB-IoT field trial in China, we can showcase a highly connected and efficient system for a new IoT application such as Mobike's bike sharing platform.”
“Mobike pioneered the world's first smart bike sharing platform, and we are committed to addressing the challenge of short-trips with innovative technologies and solutions and bringing bikes back to the city. Currently, more than 4.5 million smart bikes operate on the Mobike system, which are equipped with the exclusive, independently researched and developed smart locks. Using connectivity capabilities such as those of the MDM9206 LTE modem with integrated GNSS supporting GPS BeiDou and Glonass, Mobike has become one of the largest mobile IoT systems in the world,” said Joe Xia, co-founder and CTO, Mobike. “Mobike is pleased to work with leading enterprises in global communications and IoT industries like Qualcomm Technologies and China Mobile Research Institute in order to deliver IoT applications and services for end users while taking full advantages of the latest technology breakthroughs.”