Deutsche Telekom struck NB-IoT roaming agreements with European operator partners Swisscom, Telia and Vodafone Group, in a move to expand availability to 18 countries in total.

In a statement, Deutsche Telekom said the partnerships address customer demand for international coverage and service, as the number of IoT devices on the market increase. It expects to strike additional NB-IoT roaming agreements with further operator partners in the coming months.

Deutsche Telekom will offer mobile IoT roaming in nine of its markets (Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece, Poland and Croatia), in addition to Swisscom’s networks in Switzerland and Lichtenstein; Telia’s Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish operations; and Vodafone networks in Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and UK.

“Our customers need a sustainable roaming environment for their mobile IoT deployments to deliver a consistent service across international borders,” said Rami Avidan, SVP IoT at Deutsche Telekom. “This allows them to benefit from economies of scale as they continue to expand their business.”

Driving mobile IoT
Roaming across standardised LPWA networks is considered essential to drive the market, as manufacturers target seamless coverage when deploying mobile IoT devices across multiple markets.

The market received a further boost in June 2019, as major operators AT&T, Orange, Swisscom and KPN activated roaming on LTE-M, the other standardised LPWA IoT technology, on their respective networks, in a move to ensure better connectivity across Europe and North America.

Deutsche Telekom added roaming will be very important for many industries, such as industrial asset tracking, smart metering or waste management industries, where solutions will need to work across many markets.