Does the Orange Live IoT programme replace PTCRB or GCF certification?

No. Orange Live IoT is a network acceptance programme proper to the Orange operator. It complements, without replacing, inter-operator radio certifications (GCF in Europe, PTCRB in North America). For a cellular device commercialised on the Orange network in France or in an African affiliate, GCF remains the common 3GPP baseline, and Orange Live IoT verifies interoperability with Orange core networks, the accepted eUICC profile and the priority bands. PTCRB does not apply to Orange, its scope being North American.

What is the difference between Orange Live IoT and the Datavenue platform?

Orange Live IoT designates the Orange Business acceptance programme and cellular connectivity. Datavenue designates the Orange application platform which aggregates connectivity (cellular and LoRaWAN), device management, storage and data exposure via APIs. The two can be purchased together or separately, and a device accepted on the Orange network is not necessarily connected to Datavenue.

Does Orange operate its own LoRaWAN network in France?

Yes. Orange operates a public LoRaWAN network in France, distinct from community or private deployments. This network relies on gateways operated by Orange and an Actility ThingPark core network hosted at Orange. A device aimed at this network must be LoRaWAN Certified by the LoRa Alliance (LCTT testing) in addition to RED radio compliance. The previous operator Objenious, a Bouygues Telecom subsidiary, was shut down in late 2021 with its customer base migrated, notably to Orange and to other operators.

Does acceptance on Orange France automatically cover Orange affiliates in Africa?

No. Orange operates separate national networks in France and in each African country (Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Cameroon, Morocco with Orange Maroc, Egypt, Jordan and so on). Allocated bands, core networks and sometimes attachment policies differ. A device accepted on Orange France may require a complementary review for Orange Africa depending on the commercial target, in particular on B3 1800 MHz, B8 900 MHz and the LTE-M or NB-IoT profiles active locally.

Which cellular modules are generally accepted by Orange?

Orange does not publish a closed list equivalent to the Verizon Approved Module List, but relies on GCF certifications and on the validation programmes of major silicon vendors (Qualcomm, MediaTek, Sequans, Sony Altair). Modules from Quectel, u-blox, Telit Cinterion, Sierra Wireless or Murata commonly deployed in Europe are in practice accepted, provided they are GCF-certified and that their eUICC profile is compatible with Orange RSP. Verification is conducted project by project with Orange Business.

Must an IoT device eUICC comply with SGP.32 for the Orange network?

Orange has integrated SGP.32 into its IoT RSP offering for new deployments, complementing SGP.22 on the consumer side and SGP.02 on the legacy M2M base. For a new IoT product without a user interface, the recommended target is SGP.32, with an eUICC certified GSMA SAS-UP and a compliant IPAd. SGP.02 remains usable on existing contracts but is no longer recommended for a new project, in line with the general orientation of European operators.

Is NIDD supported on Orange NB-IoT?

NIDD (Non-IP Data Delivery) is defined by 3GPP for NB-IoT and allows short messages to be sent without an IP stack on the device side. Effective support depends on the country and on the version of the EPC or 5GC core deployed. In France, Orange supports NIDD on its NB-IoT bearer for some contractual uses, with size and frequency restrictions. The NIDD path must be tested as part of network acceptance, otherwise teams may discover late that a device designed around NIDD does not have the expected bearer in production.

What happens if a device is commercialised without submission to Orange Live IoT?

A GCF-certified and RED-compliant device can technically attach to the Orange network. Without Orange acceptance, the commercial team may refuse to provision the corresponding SIMs, degraded behaviours may appear (handover, initial attach, eUICC management, band fallback), and Orange support will not commit in case of incident. For a volume deployment or an enterprise contract, prior acceptance is required.

Orange Live IoT: cellular acceptance, Datavenue

Author Hugues Orgitello Last updated 27 May 2026 ~13 min read

Guide - Orange Live IoT

Orange is a telecommunications group present in France and in around thirty countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Its cellular acceptance programme, federated under the Orange Live IoT name and orchestrated by the Orange Business division, conditions admission of a connected device on Orange networks. It complements the GCF inter-operator certifications and the RED in Europe, without substituting for them. This page sets out the group's geographic footprint, the scope of the acceptance programme, the articulation with the Datavenue platform, the eUICC and Orange RSP topic, the Orange LoRaWAN network and the classic pitfalls of a pan-Orange commercialisation.

A group footprint to map

The Orange group operates or holds interests in several national affiliates, which makes the notion of an Orange network plural rather than singular. A device designed for Orange France does not automatically behave well on Orange Cameroun or Orange Egypte, and an acceptance programme must take this into account from the framing stage.

Region	Main countries	Specifics
France	Orange France	Legacy network, LTE-M and NB-IoT active, 5G NSA and SA in deployment, Orange LoRaWAN as a complement
Europe	Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Moldova	Separate national networks, LTE-M and NB-IoT profiles varying by country
West Africa	Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea	Strong mobile penetration, LTE in deployment, NB-IoT and LTE-M selective
Central Africa	Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic	Growing LTE coverage, local spectrum constraints
North Africa	Morocco (Orange Maroc, formerly Meditel), Tunisia	Bands harmonised with Europe, distinct local regulators (ANRT, INT)
Middle East	Jordan, Egypt	Specific operating conditions, local regulatory profile

This list evolves, the group having historically divested or acquired affiliates. The consolidated state at a given point in time should be verified with Orange Business before framing a pan-Orange project.

The practical consequence: a device aimed at the French market does not implicitly cover the African Orange market, and an Orange Live IoT acceptance programme must be articulated with the national regulatory requirements (ARCEP in France, ANRT in Morocco, national agencies in West and Central Africa). For the regulator dimension on the French side, see the general page on RED.

Orange Live IoT, the acceptance programme

Orange Live IoT designates the set of Orange Business offers and programmes intended for connected devices. On the cellular side, it includes a network acceptance and operator certification programme that any device candidate for deployment on the Orange France or Orange Africa network must clear.

The functional scope covers:

equipment identification (IMEI, eUICC profile, prerequisite GCF certification);
radio interoperability with the bands deployed by Orange (B3 1800 MHz, B7 2600 MHz, B8 900 MHz, B20 800 MHz, B28 700 MHz for LTE and LTE-M, B20 and B8 dominant for NB-IoT, n78 3.5 GHz for 5G NR primarily);
attachment behaviour on the core network (EPC or 5GC depending on the technology);
eSIM/eUICC provisioning, compliant with SGP.22 or SGP.32 depending on the segment;
roaming policies between group affiliates and with non-Orange roaming partners;
resilience to real network conditions (handover, signal loss, re-attach, PSM and eDRX behaviour for LPWAN profiles).

Unlike the Verizon OPC programme, which maintains a public and formalised Verizon Approved Module List, or Vodafone Global IoT Acceptance, Orange operates more by project review and by leveraging existing GCF certifications. This governance difference affects the duration and the format of the interactions, but not the finality: without acceptance, a volume deployment is not supported.

Orange Live IoT compared to Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom

The three large pan-European operators (Orange, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom) have structured their IoT acceptance programmes differently. The comparison is not trivial for a device aimed at multiple operators in Europe.

Criterion	Orange Live IoT	Vodafone Global IoT Acceptance	Deutsche Telekom IoT Acceptance
Direct footprint	France, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East	Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, other European markets, Vodafone Idea in India (stake), South Africa (Vodacom)	Germany, Central Europe, selected markets
Formalised module list	No closed public list, project review	Vodafone IoT validated module list	T-Mobile IoT validated module list
Associated IoT platform	Datavenue, Live Objects	Vodafone GDSP, Vodafone IoT Connectivity Platform	T-IoT, Cloud of Things, NB-IoT Cloud
eUICC RSP	SGP.22, SGP.32, SGP.02 on legacy base	SGP.22, SGP.32, SGP.02	SGP.22, SGP.32, SGP.02
Own public LoRaWAN	Yes, Orange network in France	No, partnerships	No, partnerships
Cellular acceptance required	Yes for volume deployment on Orange network	Yes for GDSP onboarding	Yes for T-IoT onboarding

For a device aimed at the three operators, the programme is not mutualisable: each operator conducts its own reviews and accepts or refuses separately. The common baseline remains GCF (Europe) and possibly PTCRB (for the North American leg where applicable).

Datavenue, the application platform

Datavenue is the Orange Business IoT platform, distinct from the Live IoT connectivity offering. It addresses the upper layer: device fleet management, data ingestion, API exposure, integration with customer IT systems.

The typical functional scope:

Device management. Provisioning of devices, lifecycle management, OTA firmware, state monitoring.
Data ingestion. Reception of messages originating from cellular or LoRaWAN, temporary storage, normalisation of formats.
Exposure API. REST and event publication for the customers' business applications.
Connectors. Towards Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and specific business applications.
Multi-bearer. Cellular 4G/5G, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Orange LoRaWAN, handled homogeneously on the API side.

A device accepted on the Orange network is not necessarily connected to Datavenue. Conversely, Datavenue may ingest data from non-Orange devices via third-party connectors. The two building blocks are commercialised together or separately depending on the enterprise contract. The distinction matters for acceptance: Live IoT looks at the cellular behaviour of the device, Datavenue looks at the application sequence, and acceptance tests may include one, the other or both depending on the contractual scope.

The Datavenue self-service portal is open for exploratory uses and lets a developer connect a test device quickly, but moving to volume production engages an enterprise contract and prior Orange Live IoT acceptance.

Cellular technology coverage

The Orange Live IoT programme covers the cellular technologies deployed by group affiliates, with varying intensity by country.

Technology	Typical Orange bands	Use cases	Availability
LTE Cat-1 / Cat-1bis	B3 1800 MHz, B7 2600 MHz, B20 800 MHz, B28 700 MHz, B8 900 MHz	Tracking, telematics, gateways, VoLTE voice	France and most affiliates
LTE-M (Cat-M1)	B20 800 MHz, B3 1800 MHz dominant, B8 secondary	Low-power mobile objects, alarms, connected health	France and selectively in Europe and Africa
NB-IoT (Cat-NB1, Cat-NB2)	B8 900 MHz, B20 800 MHz dominant	Fixed low-power sensors, metering, agriculture	France and selectively in Europe and Africa
5G NR NSA	n78 3.5 GHz primarily, n28 700 MHz for coverage	Very high throughput, low latency	France and European markets, deployment ongoing in Africa
5G NR SA	n78, n28	Slicing, URLLC, critical IoT	France in deployment, other markets to follow
GSM/2G	B8 900 MHz, B3 1800 MHz	Legacy M2M, in retreat	Variable by country, retreat underway in Europe

The bands effectively available in a given country are set by the local regulator (ARCEP in France, ANRT in Morocco, ART in Cameroon, INT in Tunisia and so on). A device intended for the Orange France market and the Orange Cameroun market must support the common band subset or be declined in two variants.

For the technology dimension of the bearers and the LTE-M vs NB-IoT difference, see the spilma glossary.

The Orange LoRaWAN network

Orange operates, in parallel with its cellular network, a public LoRaWAN network on the French territory. This network is part of the LoRa Alliance ecosystem: the gateways operated by Orange are connected to a LoRaWAN core network (typically Actility ThingPark), and candidate devices must be LoRaWAN Certified by the Alliance via LCTT testing.

A few structural points:

Spectrum. The Orange LoRaWAN network uses the EU868 band (863-870 MHz), regulated by ARCEP and subject to the ETSI EN 300 220 duty cycle.
Device certification. Admission on the Orange LoRaWAN network requires a valid LoRaWAN Certified certification for the EU868 regional pack. RED radio certification remains mandatory and is not covered by the Alliance.
Network profile. Orange may impose ADR settings, payload size constraints and transmission windows aligned on its capacity planning.
Compatibility with other LoRaWAN networks. A device LoRaWAN Certified and compatible with a ThingPark core will, as a general rule, be connectable on other Actility-operated networks (for example former Senet or KPN networks), subject to commercial conditions.

The history of the French market deserves a marker: the operator Objenious, a Bouygues Telecom subsidiary dedicated to LoRaWAN, announced the shutdown of its commercial network at the end of 2021 followed by the effective shutdown in 2022. Part of the customer base migrated to Orange or to private solutions. The consequence for a device initially designed for Objenious: verify that the network profile (DevEUI, AppEUI, AppKey, ADR parameters) is portable to the Orange core. See also LoRa Alliance, certification programme for the Alliance scope.

eUICC and RSP, Orange requirements

Orange is aligned on the GSMA standards for eSIM and RSP management. The three branches of the architecture coexist in the base:

GSMA SGP.02 on the legacy M2M base, in gradual retreat. Push-mode architecture, central SM-SR, downloads driven by the operator.
GSMA SGP.22 for consumer products and some devices with a UI, pull-mode, LPAd on the device side, SM-DP+ and SM-DS on the operator side.
GSMA SGP.32 for new modern IoT deployments, with eIM (eSIM IoT Manager), IPAd on the device side and IPAe on the eUICC side.

For a new headless industrial IoT device, the recommended target is SGP.32. The eUICC profile must be installed on a GSMA SAS-UP certified eUICC, and the LPA or IPA on the device side must correctly dialogue with the Orange SM-DP+. Orange Live IoT acceptance tests typically include:

LPA to SM-DP+ Orange handshake;
profile download, activation, disable, deletion;
behaviour on network failure during download (rollback, exploitable error log);
multi-profile handling if relevant (Orange France and Orange African affiliate on the same eUICC).

The classic mistake is to integrate a GSMA-certified eUICC but a non-compliant proprietary LPA. The LPA must be certified or, more often, inherited from the cellular module when the module embeds one. See Verizon OPC, eUICC for the North American counterpart, and the spilma glossary for the definitions ES9+, ES10b, IPAd, IPAe.

Orange Business IoT Hub and roaming

The Orange Business IoT Hub is the contractual environment that aggregates SIMs, attachment policies, APN rules and billing for cellular IoT fleets. It covers:

Multi-IMSI / steered roaming. An Orange SIM can switch between IMSIs depending on the country of attachment, to optimise cost and quality of service.
Dedicated APNs. To separate IoT traffic from consumer mobile traffic, with possible firewall, QoS and static IP rules.
Roaming between Orange affiliates. Moving from Orange France to Orange Cote d'Ivoire or Orange Maroc benefits from intra-group agreements, but the boundary behaviour remains to be verified.
Partner roaming. Beyond the group affiliates, Orange has roaming agreements with third-party operators. Not all of those partners necessarily support LTE-M or NB-IoT, and the expected bearer may fall back to generic LTE or to 2G where the LPWAN profiles have no agreement.
Management APIs. Activation, suspension, reactivation of SIMs, exposed via Datavenue or directly via the IoT Hub APIs.

The roaming topic is central for mobile devices that cross borders. An Orange Live IoT acceptance review typically includes a mapping of target countries, of expected bearers in each country and of the applicable roaming agreements.

Orange Live IoT acceptance process

The typical process to submit a device for Orange Live IoT acceptance involves several steps, the duration of which depends on the complexity of the product and on the number of affiliates targeted.

Prerequisites. GCF-certified device (or in the process of GCF certification with a realistic plan), RED compliance in Europe or local regulatory compliance in the target country, eUICC certified GSMA SAS-UP.
Commercial framing. Opening of a contact with Orange Business, definition of the scope (France, Europe, Africa), of expected bearers (LTE Cat-1, LTE-M, NB-IoT, 5G), of expected volumes and of possible Datavenue integration.
Technical submission. Provision of product documentation, GCF reports, RED reports, eUICC profile, LPA used, application firmware and expected network behaviour.
Acceptance testing. Conducted depending on the scope, either on the Orange test platform or in a recognised laboratory. Covers attachment, data path, eUICC, intra-Orange roaming, cell edge behaviour, possibly the Datavenue path.
Review. Orange Business confirms acceptance or requests corrections. The most frequent gaps concern the LPA, the band fallback behaviour and the re-attach policies.
Commercial activation. Provisioning of Orange SIMs for the product, eUICC commissioning, APN configuration and possible integration with Datavenue.
Lifecycle. Any modification of the cellular stack or of the LPA must be reported to Orange for review. As with Verizon, major modifications can trigger a re-acceptance, minor modifications are handled by notification.

Orange does not publish a contractual SLA on the acceptance duration. Qualitatively, count several weeks to a few months depending on complexity and on the number of affiliates targeted. For the global cost-schedule perspective, see certification costs and certification timeline.

ARCEP and the regulatory dimension

Orange Live IoT acceptance is an operator programme. It does not substitute for the regulatory dimension, which in France is the responsibility of ARCEP for spectrum and of the European Commission via RED for placement on the market.

The breakdown:

Regulator (ARCEP, European authorities, African authorities): issues the band usage authorisation to the operator, sets the conditions for placement on the market of terminal equipment (RED in Europe).
Operator (Orange): operates the network, decides which equipment is accepted on this network, in compliance with regulatory constraints and with its own technical policies.
Device manufacturer: must satisfy both. RED or equivalent local compliance for placement on the market, Orange acceptance for network admission.

For the African affiliates, the regulator is local (ANRT in Morocco, ARTCI in Cote d'Ivoire, ART in Cameroon, ARTP in Senegal, NTRA in Egypt, TRC in Jordan and so on). The Orange acceptance programme can be common to the group, but the regulator side is multiple. A pan-Orange Africa dossier must be aligned on each national authority in addition to the operator acceptance.

Frequent pitfalls

Assuming Orange France covers Orange Africa

The most costly mistake in commercial framing. Orange Africa networks are separate national networks, operated by affiliates with their own cores, bands and policies. A device accepted on Orange France is not implicitly valid on Orange Mali or Orange Cameroun. If the commercial target is pan-Orange Africa, this must be framed from the start with country-level reviews planned.

Confusing Orange Live IoT and Datavenue

Live IoT = connectivity and network acceptance. Datavenue = application platform. The two can be contracted together or separately. Network acceptance can be done without engaging Datavenue, and a Datavenue connection does not waive network acceptance. The confusion leads to muddled contractual framing and unnecessarily long test periods.

Underestimating the eUICC topic

A GSMA-certified eUICC without a compliant and certified LPA does not pass Orange acceptance. This is the same pitfall as on Verizon OPC. Practical rule: use the LPA embedded in the cellular module when that module is qualified, or select a third-party LPA certified SGP.22 or SGP.32, and do not reimplement a proprietary LPA.

Not testing NIDD when announced

For NB-IoT devices using NIDD, the path must be tested end to end during acceptance. NIDD support depends on the version of the Orange EPC or 5GC core, and on possible message size or frequency restrictions. A test omission leads to discovering in production that the expected bearer is not available, or that messages are silently routed via IP.

Confusing Orange LoRaWAN and private LoRaWAN networks

Orange operates a public LoRaWAN network in France. A device on this network must be LoRaWAN Certified for the EU868 pack and commercially connected to Orange. A private LoRaWAN network (ChirpStack stood up by an industrial site, or community The Things Network) does not require Orange acceptance. Confusing the two leads to incorrect framing of the certification programme.

Ignoring the Objenious history

Projects engaged before 2021 on the Objenious network may still have devices in the field with a legacy LoRaWAN network parameter set. Migration to Orange or to another operator is not automatic and requires a review of the ABP or OTAA profile, of the keys and of the frequency plans. Manufacturers concerned must include this topic in their lifecycle.

Ignoring the partner roaming dimension

Orange roaming agreements with third-party operators do not cover all bearers. An LTE-M device that roams in a country where Orange has no LTE-M agreement will fall back to generic LTE or to 2G where available. This behaviour must be tested, and the firmware must handle the fallback cleanly.

Launching production before acceptance

Orange Live IoT acceptance takes weeks to a few months. Launching volume production before its obtention exposes the project to late hardware modifications (antenna, RF front-end) or firmware modifications (cellular stack, LPA, profile metadata) which impose another certification pass. As everywhere in cellular, acceptance precedes volume production, not the other way around.

References and support

See also PTCRB for the North American dimension, Vodafone Global IoT Acceptance, Deutsche Telekom IoT Acceptance for the other large pan-European operators, LoRa Alliance for the LoRaWAN side and the spilma glossary for definitions of GCF, eUICC, IPAd, SM-DP+, EU868.

Sources & references

Orange Business, Internet of Things , Orange Business www.orange-business.com/en/products/internet-things
Datavenue, Orange IoT platform , Orange Business datavenue.orange.com/
PTCRB Certification Program , PTCRB www.ptcrb.com/
GCF, Global Certification Forum , GCF www.globalcertificationforum.org/
GSMA eSIM specifications hub, SGP.22 and SGP.32 , GSMA www.gsma.com/esim/
LoRa Alliance, certification programme , LoRa Alliance lora-alliance.org/lorawan-certification/