LPWA IoT Signposts from CTIA

On September 1, Verizon announced that it will lead efforts to deploy a Cat-M1 network in the US and that it is working with chipset, module and equipment vendors including Sony/Altair, Sequans, u-blox, Telit, Sierra Wireless, Gemalto, Nokia and Ericsson to launch the network by the end of 2016. The company claims that it will be the first service provider in the US with a commercial Cat-M1 network.

At CTIA, Qualcomm publicized a partnership with Verizon where the two companies collaborate to pre-integrate Verizon’s IoT developer platform, ThingSpace, in Qualcomm’s MDM9206 Cat-M1 chipsets. The companies expect that the ThingSpace IoT platform will be available for OEM integration on MDM9206-based solutions in early 2017.

Not to be outdone, AT&T revealed that it is planning a Cat-M1 trial network in the San Francisco later this year using modules from Sierra Wireless. Sierra’s AirPrime® modules for Cat-M1 are expected to be commercially available in the first half of 2017.

Swiss module manufacturer u-blox and Ingenu revealed that they are collaborating to make modules for Ingenu’s RPMA LPWA technology in the fourth quarter this year. u-blox mentioned its nested design form factor so that vendors can easily upgrade or refresh designs without changing circuit board layouts. This suggests that u-blox/Ingenu can easily supplant 2G, 3G or 4G designs. Previously this month Ingenu also made public a strategic partnership with PodsystemM2M for the distribution of RPMA technology. In the US, Ingenu operates public LPWANs in six cities – Austin, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio in Texas and Riverside in California. Ingenu’s US networks cover 10,921 square miles with 63 access points or base stations and plans to add 30 more cities by the end of 2016 and have a national footprint by the end of next year.

u-blox also announced its first Cat-M1 module for launch in Q4 2016 The SARA‑R4 module will be available for mobile network operators in the US market. This new Cat-M1 module complements its LPWA portfolio alongside its recently launched NB-IoT SARA‑N2 module. With these announcements the u-blox portfolio now straddles both standard and proprietary technologies.

Sequans demonstrated what it claims is the world’s first Cat-M1/NB-IoT chip, code-named Monarch and according to Sequans it is the industry’s most highly integrated Cat-M1/NB-IoT chip with baseband, RF transceiver, power management, and RAM memory integrated into a single 6.5 x 8.5 mm package. In addition, Monarch can be programmed to support different RF filtering schemes such that a single SKU offers global band support. Monarch also offers proprietary dynamic power management technology for operating life of 10+ years according to the company. In its recent earnings call Sequans CEO Georges Karam, noted that Monarch is currently in interoperability testing with the Ericsson and Nokia eNodeBs and that he expects to have certification in Q4 of this year.

Senet introduced a technology initiative with Gemalto on security for LoRaWAN connected devices. Gemalto’s Trusted Key Manager product will be integrated with Senet’s LoRa network to offer key provisioning, authentication and security for devices connecting to LoRa®-based networks. Gemalto chose to work on LoRa since its customers in Europe such as Orange are adopting LoRa for IoT. Gemalto has not announced any plans to manufacture LPWA modules.

SIGFOX was notable for its absence of press releases at CTIA, at least from what we were able to see. We found this surprising since the company previously circulated that it was planning coverage for 100 US cities in Q4 2016. To be fair, it has however been busy recently, announcing new networks in Colombia and Mexico.

In our last Insight “IoT LPWAN HetNets” we discussed the likely advent of LPWAN HetNets and these events reinforce our opinion. Furthermore, the pace of these cellular LPWA rollouts drastically narrows the window of opportunity for proprietary LPWA schemes to gain market share before the cellular juggernaut hits. Previous commentary in the press and elsewhere placed the cellular rollout sometime in 2017, but these announcements all mention Q4 2016 for the US which according to my calendar is about 2 weeks away from starting!

What also caught our attention is the fact that US MNOs are gearing up to start with Cat-M1 since its performance can tackle a wide variety of use cases, perhaps evolving to NB-IoT at a later point as an evolution to Cat-M1 for very low data rate use cases. We discuss this match between use case and LPWA technology, for both proprietary and cellular schemes, in our recent “Best Fit Use Cases for LPWANs” whitepaper.

In other regions, it appears that MNOs plan NB-IoT first. MNOs such as SKT are operating a LoRa/NB-IoT HetNet, KT are planning an NB-IoT. In Europe Orange plan LoRa/EC-GSM. In China, all three national MNOs are at various stages of NB-IoT rollout.

However, we believe that the staggering scale of the LPWA market is such that it can support multiple technologies and use cases and that MNOs will offer Cat-M1/NB-IoT capabilities and those proprietary schemes such as Ingenu’s RPMA or the various LoRa service providers will all find ways to coexist in this ecosystem.

The CTIA announcements also highlighted the regional differences in the pace and cellular technology preferences for LPWA technology. With a “Cat-M1 first” approach the US is on track to offer commercial networks in Q4 2016 or at the beginning of 2017. Other regions will lead with a “NB-IoT First” tactic perhaps becoming commercial in 2017. Meanwhile, the window of opportunity to gain market share for proprietary LPWA schemes before the cellular juggernaut hits has drastically narrowed.