Nokia announced its deal with French power utility EDF to test the performance of LPWA wireless networking technologies.

LPWA, key emerging standards for Internet of Things (IoT) device connectivity, will support critical operations for industries.

Nokia and EDF will engage in a testing regime, exploring the capabilities of LPWA technologies to support real-world industrial applications.

EDF R&D will utilize Nokia TestHub Services in Nokia’s Device Testing Lab in France. The testing lab gives access to wireless infrastructure — when testing IoT/M2M objects, chipsets, modules and user devices across all wireless technologies and frequencies.

EDF can test devices on real network infrastructure rather than a simulated network, which reduces guesswork in testing and analysis and minimizes risks in advance of widespread commercial introduction.

EDF can test IoT technologies recently standardized by the 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) – including NarrowBand-IoT (NB-IoT) and LTE-Machine (LTE-M) (also known as enhanced Machine-Type Communications or eMTC) – with other emerging, largely unlicensed IoT technologies.

Stephane Tanguy, head of IT Systems, EDF R&D, said: “We decided to test cellular IOT technologies (LTE-M and NB-IOT) with Nokia, which provides us with a very interesting test environment and valuable expertise to carry out these evaluations.”

The use of IoT devices in industrial networks is in its infancy, but given the expected huge numbers of devices that will be deployed in the future, it is critical that our customers can evaluate now the various technologies before making substantial investments, said Matthieu Bourguignon, head of Global Enterprise and Public Sector, Europe, for Nokia.