August 31, 2020, Shenzhen | Recently, the industry's leading IoT module manufacturer GosuncnWelink and the world-renowned fabless semiconductor company MediaTek jointly announced that the NB-IoT module ME3616, based on the MT2625 platform solution, has successfully achieved large-scale commercial use in a variety of remote gas meter projects of Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd., setting a benchmark for the application of 5G smart gas meter industry.

In 2020, NB-IoT will officially become the ITU IMT-2020 5G technical standard and will be the main force in the direction of 5G mMTC. With the number of NB-IoT connections surpassing 100 million and NB-IoT base stations approaching one million this year, the boom in the low-power wide-area cellular IoT industry has arrived as scheduled.

ME3616 module is the first commercial NB-IoT star product launched by GosuncnWelink in the industry. It is developed based on MediaTek's chip platform MT2625 and has excellent performance and good compatibility. The MT2625 platform has been certified by many mainstream operators around the world and has a first-class mature technology status. On this basis, the ME3616 module has a series of highly competitive superior performances such as small size, full frequency band, full certification, high reliability, and wide voltage, and it is firmly at the leading level in the industry. It has been used in smart gas meters, smart water meters, security monitoring, asset tracking, wearable, and other industries that have achieved large-scale commercial use.

Smart gas meters take the lead in NB-IoT applications. Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd. a leading Chinese Internet of Things enterprise, has been leading the development of smart gas meters and smart utility solutions. In view of the application characteristics and key technical points of NB-IoT gas meters, Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd. puts forward extremely high requirements for NB-IoT communication solutions. GosuncnWelink and MediaTek have carried out special performance optimization on the basis of ME3616, respectively focusing on wireless radio frequency, low power consumption, communication connectivity rate, environmental reliability, network compatibility, and large-scale concurrent communication, etc., to better match gas meters. The communication service characteristics of the meter meet the performance requirements of the new generation of smart gas meters.

Entering 2020, the communication solution developed around the ME3616 module has passed the strict commercial meter test process of Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd., and all indicators have reached or exceeded the customer's corporate standards. As of August 2020, Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd.  smart gas meters using ME3616 modules have been deployed in many places across China. The R&D personnel of GosuncnWelink, MediaTek, and Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd.  have worked closely for 6 months to create a demonstration of NB-IoT gas meter commercial projects and set an industry benchmark.

Yao Nan, General Manager of the GosuncnWelink Group Product Line, pointed out: "GosuncnWelink ME3616 module is one of the industry's most powerful NB-IoT solutions. Thanks to MediaTek's chip capabilities and close collaboration, our solution has been recognized by Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd.  and has a milestone significance for our development in the smart meter industry."

Xu Weixin, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek Smart Device Business Group, said: “NB-IoT has become a 5G network standard and will play an important role in the Internet of Everything era. MediaTek’s NB-IoT chip solution MT2625 relies on high integration, low power consumption, and support for 3GPP. The R14 full frequency band and other excellent features have been verified by the three major Chinese operators and have been widely used in the vertical application of IoT. As one of the applications of NB-IoT, smart meters have entered a period of growth acceleration. We are honored to be able to Cooperate with GosuncnWelink to realize commercial use on Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd.  remote gas meter, and jointly promote the development of the industry application of smart meters."

Xiao Jing, General Manager of Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd., said: "Since 2016, we have witnessed the rapid development of NB-IoT technology from its early concept to the currently widespread and mature application. A lot of valuable experience has been accumulated at the cooperation level. Our current achievements are benefited from the strong support of our partners; NB-IoT has been officially designated as a 5G standard by the ITU, which will support the development strategy of Goldcard Smart Group Co., Ltd. IoT in the future, deploying various LPWAN application scenarios for smart cities"

With the acceleration of the NB-IoT commercial process, the gas meter industry has taken the lead to benefit. It is estimated that by 2022, Chinese gas meter sales will be close to 60 million units, of which 15 million IoT gas meters will account for 25%. The retrofit of the stock gas meter with a stock of up to 250 million units will open up more room for imagination. Facing the 5G evolution, NB-IoT will become the best choice for the smart metering industry, with unlimited market prospects.