AT&T joins industry rush toward NB-IoT | FierceWireless
AT&T announced Wednesday it will join its rivals in launching an NB-IoT network for internet-of-things deployments. The carrier’s NB-IoT network will launch early next year in the United States and by the end of next year in Mexico.
AT&T’s NB-IoT network will sit alongside the operator’s existing nationwide LTE M network for IoT services, which the carrier took nationwide in the second quarter of last year. As AT&T’s David Allen explained, LTE M connections can support speeds of up to 386 Kbps, voice calls and mobile applications. NB-IoT, on the other hand, supports speeds up to 100 Kbps and cannot support voice or mobile applications. However, he said NB-IoT is ideal for simpler, on-and-off IoT services.
Allen said AT&T will deploy NB-IoT in the same way it rolled out LTE M, via commercial pilots and, eventually, nationwide services. He said the technology requires software updates to the carrier’s base stations as well as tweaks to its core network, though he declined to say how much that work would cost. He said AT&T would launch NB-IoT services in its Band 12, 2 and 4 spectrum holdings, likely in the guard bands.