• The conference, this week from February 26th to March 1st, will feature a joint demonstration between Altice Portugal and Cisco of the new NB-IoT service, the first project addressed by an MoU signed by the two companies to foster the development of IoT solutions.
• A unique initiative of Altice Portugal and Cisco, in collaboration with Janz, that allows the market to take advantage of an innovative offer. 

BARCELONA, Mobile World Congress, February 28, 2018 —  Reinforcing an already consolidated strategy of association with the most prestigious technological events, Altice Portugal will be present at the Mobile World Congress 2018, where it signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Cisco, a long time partner of Altice Portugal, promoting the development of IoT solutions, a critical area of technologic investment.  

In the first project under this MoU, Altice Portugal and Cisco, in collaboration with Janz, developed a proof of concept of Water Telemetry to explore Cisco's Ultra IoT capabilities to launch new IoT services. This system, which consists of the Cisco Ultra Services Platform, a fully virtualized, 5G-ready mobile services core that enables the availability of the new mobile network protocols targeted to IoT, namely NarrowBand-IoT (NB-IoT). It  also includes the eSCEF module which exposes network capabilities and resources to vertical applications and IoT Platforms with integrated API management.

NB-IoT is a new IoT-compatible connectivity technology that aims to reduce battery consumption of equipment, making it possible to increase the useful life of IoT devices that can remain active for several years. NB-IoT is a future-proof technology, using the cellular network and offering a guarantee of interoperability between different equipment and suppliers.

The Water Telemetry case tests this new technology effectively, since it requires an autonomous battery, often in hard-to-reach places, requiring deep indoor coverage. However, other IoT use cases like gas and electricity, smart metering, smart parking, asset and animal tracking as well as people security will benefit greatly from NB-IoT technology.

Altice Portugal considers the expansion of NB-IoT essential for the emergence of new IoT use cases, and to continue its IoT solutions portfolio diversification. Confirming a dynamic of excellence, Altice Portugal will continue to work with Cisco focused on the development of IoT services, aware that this is one of the fundamental drivers of the investment in Information Technologies around the world.

“Cisco plays an important role with our IoT ecosystem, and the new virtual packet core will be instrumental to enable fast IoT application development. The proof of concept now developed clearly demonstrates the ability of the defined architecture to effectively support a range of low power wide area applications of which smart water meeting is a good example,” said Luís Alveirinho, Chief Technology Officer, Altice Portugal.

“Altice Portugal is moving to the next level with IoT to digitize and transform their business,” said Yves Padrines, vice president, Global Service Provider EMEAR, Cisco. “We are excited about the possibilities ahead for this innovative, joint proof on concept, to help them deliver secure, integrated IoT solutions across a wide range of vertical markets, spanning different classes of service.”

Altice Portugal and Cisco are further strengthening cooperation in IoT with a Memorandum of Understanding defining a common framework to enable study and exploration of new services and solutions.

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About Altice Group

Founded in 2001 by entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, Altice is a convergent global leader in telecom, content, media, entertainment and advertising. Altice delivers innovative, customer-centric products and solutions that connect and unlock the limitless potential of its over 50 million customers over fiber networks and mobile broadband. The company enables millions of people to live out their passions by providing original content, highly-quality and compelling TV shows, and international, national and local news channels. Altice delivers live broadcast premium sports events and enables millions of customers to enjoy the most well-known media and entertainment. Altice innovates with technology in its Altice labs across the world. Altice links leading brands to audiences through premium advertising solutions. Altice is also a global provider of enterprise digital solutions to millions of business customers. Altice is present in 10 territories from New York to Paris, from Tel Aviv to Lisbon, from Santo Domingo to Geneva, from Amsterdam to Dallas. Altice (ATC & ATCB) is listed on Euronext Amsterdam.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the Internet work since 1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow’s digital opportunity today. Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.

About Janz

Founded in 1915, JANZ offers its customers the future of water management solutions. We produce from the most innovative and technological tools to support water management, even as the most traditional and reliable water metering solutions. We present to the national and international market the latest and most technologically advanced Telemetry solutions, water meters for all applications and a wide range of accessories associated with water management.