It’s part of the new smart meter initiative, SMETS2. New smart appliances will have to be able to speak with the new smart meters, and they are using a regional zigbee to do so. But they’re getting a few extra years, I believe. The meters started rolling out last year.
https://zigbee.org/smart-energy-by-the-zigbee-alliance-chosen-for-smart-meter-rollout-to-every-home-in-great-britain-by-2020/
The IEEE has approved a single “global“ frequency for zigbee, 2.4 GHz, so we usually say that there is only one zigbee frequency worldwide. And that’s true for the global standard.
However, that’s the same frequency that Wi-Fi operates at, and a few regions are so congested in that band that the zigbee alliance has approved some different regional frequencies.
There are three of these for the EU, and they are becoming increasingly popular, particularly since the UK has a new requirement coming that all appliances be able to communicate with smart meters. This will be done using zigbee on the 868,3 frequency.
A good example are Bosch devices. Although their global frequency zigbee devices like the motion sensors sold in the US generally work well with the smartthings hub, the light …
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