Avnet Showcases Collaborative Innovations to Accelerate Narrowband IoT at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2018

At the Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2018 starting today, Avnet Asia Pacific will showcase innovative Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) solutions together with its partners, to accelerate the commercialization of NB-IoT.

Driven by both the Chinese government and local market demand, NB-IoT is picking up speed in large-scale commercialization as one of China’s strategic emerging industries. “China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have already deployed commercial NB-IoT, or carried out trials, across the country. As a key enabler of commercial IoT, NB-IoT technology will be widely applied in various industries, including public utilities, logistics, automotive, agriculture, manufacturing and wearables,” said Frederick Fu, president of Avnet Asia Pacific. “Avnet operates at the forefront of IoT, and offers a connected ecosystem together with key players to provide the full suite of IoT services, including system integrators, service providers, device manufacturers, cloud platform providers, network operators and suppliers.”

At the event, Avnet will showcase its NB-IoT starter kit that enables engineers to easily develop and prototype connected IoT devices utilizing NB-IoT network. The kit includes all the components required to collect sensor data, connect to the NB-IoT network, and utilize various cloud services for the management, storage and analytics of connected IoT devices. Together with TE Connectivity, Exosite, Renesas, Molex, NXP, IDEMIA and Trusted Objects, Avnet will also showcase other innovative solutions on smart security, face recognition, cloud platform, IoT platform connected to AWS, and a synergy platform connected to Baidu.

Communication is the foundation of IoT, and most IoT applications require physical environment data transmitted in low bandwidth and frequency. Therefore, low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies will be the key to enable IoT applications, with its wide coverage, high capacity, and low power consumption. NB-IoT is currently the most widely promoted LPWAN technology in China.

Frederick Fu added that Avnet continues to invest heavily in the mobile IoT market and collaborating with key network operators globally to accelerate the deployment and commercialization of IoT technologies. Earlier this year, Avnet collaborated with a leading operator in Hong Kong and provided local startups with comprehensive technical support, such as development tools, prototype testing and software customization. Through this project, Avnet aims to drive the development of NB-IoT application solutions, expand the IoT ecosystem and build a smart city in Hong Kong. Moving forward, Avnet will continue to work closely with its partners to further accelerate the application of mobile IoT in China.