China Mobile, Ericsson, and Intel are showing off new cellular Internet of Things technology at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Shanghai. The companies have worked together on a smart city concept that may offer some indication of how the IoT will shape the smart city of the future.

The system to be showcased comprises several components: Intel’s XMM 7115 modem, China Mobile’s environment monitoring system, and what the companies call in a press release Ericsson’s “RBS6000 multi-mode base station” together with “pre-commercial software based on the latest Cellular IoT technology”. Together, the technologies work together to monitor a range of environmental conditions including humidity, brightness, temperature, fine particulate matter in the air, and more. The system will be demonstrated at MWC Shanghai this Wednesday.

The companies say the solution is a demonstration of next-generation cellular IoT technology that will ultimately comply with Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) standards, and will find applications in a range of areas including “smart meters, smart wearables, smart home, municipal IoT, smart building, logistics tracking, wide area IoT, industrial IoT” and so on. By demonstrating a more specific application of the technology with China Mobile’s environment monitoring system, the companies may catch the attention of the many MWC attendees struggling to grasp the practical implications of the IoT.