Vodafone is starting to support IoT projects in the US, through its roaming agreement with AT&T, so that customers can launch projects in the US or globally.

One of the companies beginning to use Vodafone's Cat M IoT technology in the US is the Donaldson Company, a multinational filtration specialist, headquartered in Bloomington, Minn., which has started to introduce network-connected dust collectors for its industrial customers across the States.

"We're building a connected filtration service business," explains Wade Wessels, global director of connected solutions and IoT at Donaldson. He said that the idea is that connected collectors can be managed proactively and serviced “based on need”, rather than on schedule.

"We have an edge device that mounts onto the machine," Wessels says of the Cat M IoT device.

Donaldson is utilizing LTE Cat M to connect dust filtration systems back to a network. "We're currently offering it in the United States," says Wessels.

He says that Donaldson plans to start offering the connected dust filtration systems to customers in Europe next year. "That'll happen early in 2020," says Wessels.

Donaldson started to use the Vodafone service in September. Vodafone Netherlands signed a roaming deal to use Cat M across the US with AT&T in February. Vodafone signed a separate roaming deal for NB-IoT low power tech in October.

The partnerships enable Vodafone to manage its industrial customers across continents. "From Donaldson's perspective, they don't know or care about what network they are on and find it valuable for Vodafone be the single point manager," a Vodafone spokesperson told Light Reading.

Related posts:

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading