RuseConf is part of IT-Tour. Every year IT-Tour organize conferences in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Ruse, Burgas, Veliko Tarnovo. They are all made by volunteers and completely free to participate. The idea is to encourage local IT community to share ideas and interesting talks.
This weekend on 28th of September was RuseConf and Olimex presented there our newest NB-IoT boards.
NB-IoT-DevKit boards will be on our web for sale next week with sale price per one unit EUR 18.00. They employ the NB-IoT technology which uses existing LTE 4G network to implement LPWAN.
The NB-IoT devices use low power and can operate on battery for 10 years if network traffic is less 200 bytes per day (this may seems small but SigFox for instance allow 2 to 140 uploads of 12 bytes messages per day. NB-IoT has no restrictions and limits, but if have to be careful as more traffic means more battery discharge. One GSM LTE base cell can connect up to 100 000 NB-IoT devices at same time ( but of course it no one talk on his GSM phone in this cell range) which beats LoRa gateway maximal theoretical 49 connections. Also the NB-IoT module we use has +20dB more sensitivity so if normally one Base cell can connect to NB-IoT nodes up to 10km this module has 10 time more sensitivity and can connect up to 100 km from the base cell. This of course is marketing claim theoretical claim as explained in the talk but still impressive.
The slides are in Bulgarian and English and uploaded at Slideshare.com
olimex 
Oct 03, 2019 @ 06:31:56
Looking forward to get NB-IoT in my area and get this board under trial.
Oct 03, 2019 @ 08:36:21
Will it work in Japan?
Oct 03, 2019 @ 08:46:02
BC-66 covers all possible GSM bands worldwide, what GSM band is used in Japan?
Oct 04, 2019 @ 15:19:13
English version -> slide 7-> LoRa limitations: Please translate to English 🙂
Oct 04, 2019 @ 16:32:51
Page 7 (-) low speed (-) no regulation (-) if more than 500 devices may jam all traffic
Page 8 LoRa Limitation as seen there when more than 2 messages per minute (100 per hour) only 500 devices can co-exist in same gateway range.
Oct 06, 2019 @ 12:14:58
What does “no regulation” mean? Where I live there are specific rules to follow in terms of max power for the 925 MHz band.
Oct 06, 2019 @ 12:43:11
The licensee free band has rules, but here in Bulgaria no one is following them. This creates mess and anarchy, so in practice no one can achieve reliable communication and the advertised range and battery life with LoRa. Everyone is transmitting at maximal power with even if there is no need for it and most of these “radio bandits” do not operate on battery, so do not care much about the others. Some even make “enhancements” in the concept and send several messages and confirmations unnecessary increasing the traffic.
Oct 09, 2019 @ 17:06:42
When will be avaiable for purchasing? Next week it’s now! ☺️
Oct 11, 2019 @ 17:36:25
it’s there now, but need some more resources to be uploaded 🙂
Oct 12, 2019 @ 21:16:50
Here’s the page: https://www.olimex.com/Products/IoT/NB-IoT/
P.s. Olimex, are you officially unveiling “micro UEXT”? 🙂