By Jon Gold – Network World
Carriers double up on IoT
Vodafone announced earlier this month that it would double the size of its European NB-IoT network, making it more widely available than ever for use in smart-city solutions, connected agriculture and more. The company boasted that its NB-IoT network will be able to reach into basements and other tricky wireless environments, as well as support up to 50,000 connections from a single cell.
Stateside, it looks like AT&T is working on new SIM technology for IoT networks, which would integrate the SIM card directly into a chipset, making it easier to produce low-power connected devices at scale, and eliminating their need to use traditional SIM cards. (They’ve partnered up with Giesecke+Devrient Mobile Security and Altair Semiconductor to make this possible on Altair’s ALT1250 chipset.)
What’s more, Sprint and Ericsson took to the wires this month to announce two new IoT-specific things at the Americas edition of the Mobile World Congress. First, an IoT operating system aimed at simplifying device management and subscription information. And second, a virtualized network segment designed to reduced latency to IoT devices working on Sprint’s network.
The carriers seem to be confident that their role in the future of IoT is a big one, and they’re probably right.