8/11/2016, SFR, France's second-largest mobile operator, announced that it is conducting experiments on NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies to complement existing 2G / 3G / 4G networks. Earlier this year, SFR announced its cooperation with Sigfox to launch IoT services in France and other markets. Sigfox, headquartered in Toulouse, France, has successfully developed several low-power wide area LPWA network technologies to support IoT-based applications such as power meters. In contrast to LPWA technologies such as SigFox or LoRA, LTM-M and NB-IoT use licensed spectrum resources and are considered as LPWA solutions for cellular mobile technologies. Many mobile operators have expressed their support for IoT technology based on licensed spectrum, but the official NB-IoT specification was not included until the 13th edition of 3GPP in June of this year. SFR says the NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies are not yet mature and SFR's strategy is to keep bringing the latest IoT solutions to customers, including those that are already mature and under test.