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New agreement with SFR will accelerate global coverage for OEMs and IoT players
Brussels – Belgium, 21st January 2021 – BICS, an international communications enabler, is expanding its global coverage of NB-IoT connectivity in collaboration with leading French mobile operator, SFR. This will bolster BICS’ ability to directly embed 2G, 3G, 4G, NB-IoT and LTE-M/Cat-M1 connectivity in the devices of OEMs and IoT players via BICS’ SIM for Things IoT global solution. The acceleration of Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) deployment solves many technical, operational, and commercial challenges to help hardware manufacturers deploy new IoT solutions around the globe.
BICS’ network is central to the IoT ecosystem, connecting IoT devices with 2G, 3G, and 4G connectivity to more than 700 mobile operators around the world. In addition, BICS has developed one of the largest NB-IoT/LTE-M networks in the world, with coverage in 30 countries. Through its eSIM solution, manufacturers can easily embed connectivity and switch networks depending on quality and coverage.
The introduction of NB-IoT/LTE-M connectivity is set to benefit a host of IoT applications. By using LPWAN connectivity, devices use less power, reducing maintenance cost and battery size, and thus opening the door to provide connectivity to a new range of connected devices. Embedding this connectivity directly into these devices speeds up their physical deployment and builds in flexibility to tailor connectivity to each use case.
“We are leveraging our leading position in the market to provide greater choice and flexibility to the global IoT industry,” said Mikaël Schachne, CMO and VP Mobility & IoT at BICS. “By capitalising on our relationships with mobile operators around the world, BICS is uniquely placed to provide companies global 2G, 3G, 4G, NB-IoT and LTE-M connectivity to make IoT deployment simple, reliable, flexible and cost effective.”
At BICS’ recent Future of Connectivity event, Kaleido Intelligence’s Chief of Research, Steffen Sorrell, highlighted that with 2.5 billion LPWAN connections predicted by 2025, there will be a substantial market for NB-IoT in the coming years. BICS’ expanded NB-IoT/LTE-M network is a major step in facilitating the deployment of global IoT projects for enterprises and providing instant and secure connectivity for devices.
During the past year BICS has enhanced its IoT offering, launching a partnership with Avnet Silica to accelerate global IoT deployment and open new use cases capitalising on NB-IoT/LTE-M connectivity. The announcement with SFR further strengthens BICS’ global connectivity to support the anticipated growth of the IoT market.