Cisco (News - Alert) today announced that Cisco Jasper Control Center for NB-IoT is now available worldwide, making it the first commercially available global NB-IoT platform. When used in conjunction with the Cisco Jasper Control Center IoT connectivity management platform, enterprises will be able to manage both NB-IoT and cellular devices.
“The demand for low cost, low power connectivity is extremely high throughout China, and we expect to have over 100 million NB-IoT connections on our network by 2020,” said Xiaotian Chen, GM, IoT Business Unit, China Unicom (News - Alert). “By embracing multiple technologies for both traditional and low power devices, we give our customers – regardless of their industry – the flexibility to choose what fits their specific business needs.”
By reducing complexity and costs without compromising quality, Control Center for NB-IoT is designed to make it practical and profitable for companies to connect all sorts of everyday devices that will enable smart metering, building automation, asset tracking, smart cities, remote agriculture and more on a global scale.
“NB-IoT dramatically reduces the power and cost of connectivity, so now even the most simple things will be capable of delivering valuable IoT services. This is going to drive exponential growth in the IoT industry, and one size will not fit all,” said Daniel Collins, VP, IoT Products, Cisco. “We designed Control Center for NB-IoT to address a broad range of low power use cases and business models – from a water meter that sends a burst of data once a week, to a city parking meter that handles transactions at all times of the day and night. Companies need the flexibility to get and pay for connectivity based on the value that each of those transactions represent to their business. We are excited to support our service provider partners and enterprise customers in China and around the world in their quest to cost-effectively deliver meaningful business outcomes.”
As NB-IoT makes connectivity of devices more accessible and affordable, the ability to manage increasingly large volumes of devices is critical.