China's bicyle-sharing firm gets tech upgrade

Ofo bikes are lined up outside a subway?entrance in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, Jan 19, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

BEIJING - China's bicyle-sharing start-up ofo on Wednesday partnered with two Chinese telecom companies - Huawei and China Telecom to improve its connectivity.

The firms will begin research on narrow band Internet of Things, or NB-IoT solutions for smart bicyle locks to improve the riding experience.

The NB-IoT technology will allow connections between IoT devices faster and on a wider range. The connection also consumes less energy.

Ofo founder and CEO Dai Wei said the upgrade will solve the problems with smart locks.

Bicyle-sharing is the latest tech craze in China. Dai pioneered the service when he released the first station-less and app-enabled bicyles in Peking University in June 2015. Users can search for a bicyle and unlock it through a smart phone app.

Ofo says it has bicyles in 40 cities with a customer base of 15 million.