EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Nokia’s Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) programme is set to enter the next phase in its deployment with the first real world applications of the managed services set up.

In an interview during the first Mobile World Congress Americas, Ankur Bhan, global head of Nokia WING (pictured), told Mobile World Live the company expects to launch a production unit in Q4 following six months of pilots with selected customers.

The vendor announced WING during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in response to calls from mobile operators for “IoT enablement in a very flexible, cost effective, manner,” he said. The division aims to achieve this by providing operators with a broad set of services covering management of IoT connectivity, devices and applications.

Such managed services will assist operators in overcoming challenges including delivering seamless connectivity in “large, multi-country, global IoT deployments”, based on cellular technologies spanning 2G through to LTE-Advanced. Nokia WING will also help to address potential IoT technology fragmentation “at the core, at the platform level”, he explained.

The broad spread of technologies covered by WING is necessary to address the wide range of IoT use cases operators are developing, which vary according to the bandwidth required.

Bhan cited connected cars and industrial IoT deployments as examples of the “use cases that our customers are already supporting”, adding such services fit well with the broader WING remit because they require “global deployment across multiple geographies.”

Click here to view the full interview.