Remote metering will allow customers to monitor their daily water consumption, facilitate accurate billing by eliminating estimated usage, detect leaks and other unusual situations in their homes, and identify unbilled water flows. It will also provide the water company's operations teams with information on the status of their end customers' water supply.
 
NB-IoT is a low-power connectivity solution with wide network coverage, focused on adapting devices to the needs of the Internet of Things (IoT) market. It enables long battery life, cost-effectiveness tailored to specific use cases, high coverage, and indoor penetration. The technology also allows for high scalability and comprehensive security. NB-IoT has facilitated the creation of a service adapted to the needs of remote water metering, resolving the management of the communications network, which is handled by Telefónica. The collaboration with Huawei, a leading proponent of this technology, has enabled the launch of the first real-world NB-IoT experience in Latin America.
 
With the aim of fostering an open and participatory Internet of Things ecosystem, Telefónica has collaborated with two major companies in the sector. These are Kamstrup, which supplied the smart meters, and Huawei, which handled the corresponding upgrade of the NB-IoT network. Furthermore, Telefónica's R&D Center in Chile was responsible for designing and planning the technical tests in conjunction with Huawei. This center, a joint initiative of Telefónica and the Chilean government, specializes in the development of IoT technologies, particularly those related to connectivity and low-power networks, which are fundamental to the sector's development.
 
As Vicente Muñoz, Chief IoT Officer at Telefónica, explains: “We are proud to have joined forces with Huawei and Kamstrup for the launch of this commercial pilot project with NarrowBand IoT in Latin America. This reinforces our commitment to using our network infrastructure to provide IoT solutions to our customers, adapting to the needs of each one of them.”.
 
Telefónica, along with the other companies that have participated in this first customer pilot, plans to extend it soon to more than 300 residential water meters by reusing the 700MHz LTE network and thus demonstrating how utility companies can achieve operational efficiencies through IoT solutions.

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