Three UK Pilots New Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN)

Mobile operator Three UK, specifically their Three Wholesale division, has today announced their first pilot of a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN / LPWA), which is intended to form the foundation for an eventual nationwide roll-out in order to help connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices (e.g. remote sensors, smart devices etc.).

Existing 4G and new 5G mobile networks are obviously getting much better at delivering fast mobile broadband connectivity to consumers, although such networks aren’t ideal (power hungry and expensive) for connecting smaller battery-powered (lasting for 5-10 years) remote sensors and other devices that may only have very low data demands. You also need a signal that can penetrate deeper indoors and even underground.

As a result of this a lot of operators have been developing LPWAN technology to complement their primary networks. Such solutions generally don’t offer fast data links (anything from a few Kbps to 5-7Mbps) and are more targeted at covering a very wide area with only minimal power requirements. Not much good for modern consumer demands but perfect for IoT kit.

In this case Three UK’s pilot LPWAN network, which is being designed alongside a unit of CK Hutchison’s telecom division (CKH IOD), appears to be using the fairly recent 4G based LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for Machines / 3GPP Release 13) standard. In theory this can deliver a peak symmetric speed of 1Mbps via just 1.4MHz of bandwidth, although most IoT kit won’t require more than 0.1Mbps (i.e. a possible future 2G placement).

Interestingly the operator also appears to be testing another LPWAN technology alongside LTE-M called NB-IoT (Narrowband – IoT), which has a max data rate of 159Kbps via just 180KHz of bandwidth. Overall LTE-M may be faster and aligned more closely with 4G capabilities, although it’s more costly than NB-IoT and cannot yet be put into guard band frequency (i.e. bits of spectrum that exist between bands in order to prevent interference).

Darren King, Head of Business Development at Three Wholesale, said:

“The launch of our LPWA pilot is an exciting development for Three UK, giving our Enterprise customers access to a broader range of services. The low power, long battery life and excellent reach of LPWA technology has great potential to support companies in any industry where companies need continuous information from their infrastructure in order to optimise service.

We expect that we will be able to start offering LPWA services to a range of industries over the next few years, as we extend the sectors we offer the service in.”

At present three UK’s pilot network has been set-up at the Integrated Transport Electricity Gas Research Laboratory in Gateshead UK (InTEGReL), which is a collaboration between Northern Gas Networks, Newcastle University, Northern Powergrid, Northumbrian Water and Siemens.

Utility suppliers are a key target for LPWAN systems as they have many monitoring and control devices, which could all benefit from such networks. The LPWA at InTEGReL will enable researchers to deploy wireless devices throughout the experimental energy network to identify problems and gather performance data (i.e. helping to improve service reliability, detect faults, make customer billing more accurate and lower carbon emissions).

Networks like this can operate alongside a variety of different radio bands and they often make use of unlicensed spectrum in the sub-gigahertz territory (e.g. 868MHz or lower), although in this case Three UK doesn’t say what bands they’re testing with (we have asked and will report back if they give us an answer).