450MHz Alliance General Assembly – 14th October Barcelona

The upcoming assembly of 450MHz Alliance will take place on 14th of October 2019 Barcelona in conjunction with Qualcomm’s 5G Summit, 14-16 October. Further information, agenda and registration can be found on our website.

During the upcoming event, we would like to focus on the latest developments in the 400MHz band with the particular focus on the availability of the ecosystem for the most common use cases within this spectrum such as business critical M2M communication, emergency voice or mobile broadband. Through open discussion with various stakeholders of 400MHz ecosystem, we would like to create synergies for the participants whether operators, vendors or 400MHz network users, and lead to fruitful business opportunities.

Besides having many operators and vendors at hand in the meeting, we present and discuss current state of the 450 MHz industry to give our audience a broad prospective and perhaps to make their decisions easier. We conduct our meetings in a manner to create an open environment to allow for free-flowing discussion of many sometimes-difficult issues facing our industry yet needed to be addressed.

We are looking forward to welcoming our members and interested guests in October in Barcelona.

450connect, Nokia and GASAG showcase LTE450 for utility industry in Berlin

450MHz Alliance members – 450connect and Nokia, demonstrate together with GASAG LTE-450 applications for the utility industry in Berlin. The aim of the pilot project is to showcase the tremendous potential of this technology to enable energy transition. For the first time, LTE450 wireless technology will be used for gas industry applications.

The LTE450 technology will be implemented at the radio site of 450connect in the centre of Berlin and thus will cover large parts of the government district. “450connect is driving the rollout of national 450 MHz radio network in Germany, “says Frank Zeeb, CEO of Alliander AG, the shareholder of 450connect. “We are pleased to see the performance and rapid realization of the LTE450 technology for critical applications, especially the gas industry, with our Partner GASAG in Berlin. ” Nokia as technology leader for communication solutions in critical infrastructures provides the network equipment for the radio network with the required combination of LTE and LTE-M technology in the 450 MHz frequency band. “After successful tests in other countries, we are pleased to build our LTE450 solution in Berlin and cooperate with GASAG and 450connect to demonstrate it to the utility industry, “says Wolfgang Hackenberg, Speaker of the Board in the German Nokia organisation. The commissioning of the radio network is scheduled for the end of October. The demonstration of LTE450 technology and energy applications are scheduled for completion in late 2019.

Smart Energy powered by LTE450 Summit in Warsaw by PGE Systemy

At a launch event attended by the Minister for Energy, Polish Power companies PGE Dystrybucja and Enea Operator signed cooperation agreement with PGE Systemy to build a highly secure, highly resilient private LTE network operating in the 450 MHz frequency band (LTE band 31). The frequency band has been made available by the regulator exclusively for the deployment of a smart grid network and has been allocated to PGE Systemy in the summer of 2018.

The announcement is the culmination of several months of work and extensive equipment trials with core and access technologies provided by Nokia and Ericsson. Additionally, a wide range of modem and handset vendors were involved with the trial and presented their products at the launch event. Ruggedized devices suitable for use in mechanically and electrically harsh environments were successfully shown to support multiple applications including push to talk, push to video, operational SCADA connectivity and smart metering applications.

PGE Systemy will coordinate the network deployment and will work in partnership with other Polish Distribution and Transmission network operators. The cooperation agreement represents a significant development in enhancing smart grid connectivity to facilitate the huge increase required in visibility and control of distributed renewable energy assets, electric vehicles, battery storage facilities and smart meters.

Legacy utility telecoms networks do not readily scale to the new connectivity challenges of the smart grid. An alternative in the 450 MHz frequency band based on 3GPP LTE technology is an attractive solution by virtue of the scalability, interoperability and vendor support for the solution. Such solutions are being investigated by many large utility companies throughout the world.

Also taking part in the event were representatives from the wider Polish Energy sector, device vendor community, 450 MHz Alliance and European Utilities Telecoms Council.

450 MHz Alliance opens China Representative Office

450 MHz Alliance opened its representative office in Shanghai last month, the country’s biggest city and a global financial hub. The Alliance wants to build closer relationship with Chinese operators, regulators and organizations benefiting from the Internet of Things. We will formally announce the China office in general assembly in Barcelona.

Are you 450 MHz Alliance member and you have interesting news to share in our newsletter? Please feel free to reach out to us at info@450alliance.org.