Shenzhen Water, China Telecom, and Huawei Jointly Release the World's First Commercial NB-IoT-based Smart Water Project on World Water Day
[Shenzhen, China, March 22, 2017] The 25th World Water Day is celebrated with Shenzhen Water, China Telecom, and Huawei's joint announcement of the release of the world's first commercial NB-IoT-based Smart Water project. This momentous ceremony was attended by Wang Hushan, Deputy Secretary General of Shenzhen, Han Dehong, Chairman of Shenzhen Water, Li Shengfei, General Manager of China Telecom Shenzhen, and Edward Deng, President of Huawei Wireless Solution. This project marks a significant milestone for introducing the full utilization of NB-IoT in the field of water services.
Shenzhen Water, China Telecom, and Huawei jointly release the world's first commercial NB-IoT-based Smart Water project on World Water Day
Shenzhen Water has deployed approximately 1200 NB-IoT-enabled smart water meters for Southern Pearl Garden and other residential areas in the Yantian District of Shenzhen. With the help of the carrier network and the water service platform based on E-Cloud 3.0 of China Telecom Shenzhen, Shenzhen Water has comprehensively upgraded its water management system to embrace the Smart Water era. The core values of Smart Water lie in intelligent household meter reading and pipeline detection. Compared with legacy water affairs management, Smart Water avoids the service charge loss caused by false or missing meter reading and water loss from pipeline leakage. Smart Water helps water utility providers analyze water usage patterns of different consumer groups to build up or reconstruct the water pipe network in a more reasonable arrangement for convenient and reliable consumer water services.
Han Dehong, Chairman of Shenzhen Water, commented: "Shenzhen Water has been proactively exploring the in-depth convergence between water service management and next-generation information technologies, including cloud computing, IoT, and big data. The preliminarily construction of a smart water service system with things, people, and services always online is in progress. The next task is to deepen our cooperation with China Telecom Shenzhen and Huawei in Smart Water, IoT, and other applicable sectors. This is to promote Shenzhen's water service quality and efficiency to facilitate the city government in achieving rigid water resource management. All these combined efforts aim to provide residents with high-quality water services for an enhanced livelihood experience."
Network coverage is a prerequisite for the large-scale roll-out of NB-IoT services. Since 2016, China Telecom Shenzhen has begun an intricate network upgrade program for NB-IoT operating on 800 MHz. Up till now, more than 500 NB-IoT-capable base stations have been deployed throughout Shenzhen. Shenzhen Water has migrated their metering operations to the E-Cloud 3.0 platform of China Telecom Shenzhen to help further facilitate the implementation of Smart Water.
Li Shengfei, General Manager of China Telecom Shenzhen, indicated: "In the strategy of transformation towards 3.0, establishing an ecosystem requires great emphasis towards contributions for IoT applications in relation to opening-up, cooperation, convergence, and innovation. China Telecom is engaging in positive additions to ensure the setup of a comprehensive IoT ecosystem, on the basis of the leading ubiquitous networking and the dedicated IoT platform. With the help of IoT, cloud computing, big data, and associated Internet technologies, Shenzhen is set to be transformed into a renowned benchmark Smart City which boasts ever-increasing intelligence."
Since the sign-up of the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement, Shenzhen Water, China Telecom, and Huawei have been continuously endeavoring to ripen the NB-IoT industry chain. After the one-year exploration, the application benefits of Smart Water are further clarified.
Edward Deng, President of Huawei Wireless Solution, said: "The commercial NB-IoT-based Smart Water project jointly conducted by Shenzhen Water, China Telecom, and Huawei will play an exemplary role in the development of the IoT industry and Smart City worldwide. I hope that the three parties can duplicate the cooperative achievements seen in Shenzhen and apply these principles across China, and eventually extend them to overseas markets. I also hope that the cooperation in the cloud field this time can establish a benchmark for cloud-thing convergence, offering greater value to Smart City development in Shenzhen."
As one of the dominant components in Smart City construction, Smart Water advances the development of smart infrastructure in Shenzhen. This project increases the operational efficiency of water circulation and optimizes resource usage, assisting water utility providers in targeted governance featuring control and security. Furthermore, the informatization of municipal utilities enables residents to receive convenient services combined with an improved city life experience.
In 2017, over 30 NB-IoT networks are scheduled for launch by Huawei in the sectors of Utility, Smart City, Smart Agriculture, and other fields in more than 20 countries and regions across the world.
