Empowering a smart society
With the ambition to make its Internet of Things (IoT) business objectives a reality, Dialog Axiata partnered with Ericsson to upgrade its network, resulting in the launch of South Asia’s first Massive IoT commercial network.
Empowering a smart society: Massive IoT comes to Sri Lanka
A customer testimonial showing the successful partnership between Ericsson and Dialog Axiata. It highlights how, via a simple activation on Dialog’s existing software, Ericsson helped them roll out the country’s first Massive IoT network.
Cellular IoT is expected to reach an estimated 3.5 billion connections worldwide in 20231. With new Massive IoT cellular technologies such as NB-IoT and Cat-M1 (LTE-M) fueling market growth, service providers can improve efficiencies and enhance customer value.
1 Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2018
Ericsson deployed the 3GPP standardized technologies Cat-M1 and NB-IoT as a software activation to Dialog’s existing LTE Radio Access Network (RAN).
This was a smooth activation, given Dialog’s existing network and long-term partnership with Ericsson, and the deployment led to the successful launch of South Asia’s first Massive IoT commercial network.
The project saw Ericsson successfully activating Massive IoT RAN software on Dialog’s existing LTE installed base and carrying out knowledge sharing through technology workshops and IoT deep-dive sessions.
South Asia’s first Massive IoT commercial network paves the way for a strong end-to-end ecosystem with industry partners, as well as opening up new business opportunities and use cases for Dialog and its enterprise customers.
What’s more, the first NB-IoT Hackathon in Sri Lanka was conducted in collaboration with Ideamart in March 2018. Teams were tasked with creating NB-IoT solutions using Dialog’s IoT platform, or to make existing solutions NB-IoT compatible.
Use case testing is underway in the Dialog–University of Moratuwa Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka. Its vision is to explore opportunities in emerging IoT markets and develop relationships with IoT device and solution providers.
The opportunity
- As the market leader, Dialog wanted to take the first-mover advantage in the IoT value space
- Its ambition is to improve the efficiency of society as a whole
The solution
- Dialog launched South Asia’s first Massive IoT network with Ericsson
- Cat-M1 (LTE-M) and NB-IoT support was delivered by Ericsson as a software activation to Dialog’s existing LTE RAN: the complementary technologies meet diverse use case needs
- Ericsson and Dialog partnered to launch an Innovation Center for 5G and IoT use case development
The result
- The network supports the country’s end-to-end IoT ecosystem development by offering superior coverage, long battery life and cost-effective solutions to enterprises
- The Massive IoT network enabled the trial of use cases, which Dialog plans to take commercial, and which will help accelerate the proliferation of IoT devices
- The network supported the first NB-IoT Hackathon in Sri Lanka
Activating tomorrow today
By delivering Cat-M1 and NB-IoT support as a software activation to Dialog Axiata’s existing LTE RAN, Ericsson has created the first commercially available Massive IoT network in South Asia.