3 Hong Kong, the mobile unit of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong, rolled out a low-power NB-IoT network on the 900MHz spectrum band across the territory with Huawei providing the equipment.

The market’s second largest operator said in a statement the infrastructure was built with NB-IoT modules designed to the 3GPP standard to facilitate tests and development of NB-IoT applications. The operator used NFV technology to enable proof of concept activity around NB-IoT applications, while the use of cloud technology negates need of additional hardware for testing.

Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong CEO Cliff Woo said it is working with industry partners and startups to establish a local NB-IoT ecosystem which will provide industries with commercial applications: “The end result will be creation of more value for this city’s business community at the same time as preparing 3 Hong Kong for a new era of massive connectivity via 5G technology,” he said.

It is also collaborating with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation to open up business opportunities by enabling startups to develop NB-IoT applications for various industries and take them to market.

Additional efforts include working with Power Assets Holdings to apply the high-penetration capability of NB-IoT technology to utility meters. Applications are also being developed for surveillance and management of oil pipelines, while others involve big data analysis and smart surveillance to save energy and boost operational efficiency.

Three 3GPP-licensed technologies – NB-IoT, EC-GSM-IOT and LTE-M – are claimed to cover all low power wide area (LPWA) use cases, ensuring customer choice and driving the IoT ecosystem. Rival proprietary technologies using unlicensed spectrum including Sigfox, LoRa and Ingenu have enjoyed earlier entry to market and racked up commercial deals.

NB-IoT and LTE-M are seeing commercial rollouts across Asia, including markets such as China, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.