Ericsson: LTE Can Support Millions of Low-Power IoT Devices per Cell Site

Ericsson introduced the first complete cellular low-power wide-area (LPWA) offering, with backing from AT&T.

Ericsson Networks Software 17A for Massive IoT addresses a comprehensive range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications by supporting millions of IoT device connections per cell site.

Ericsson said its new network software introduces narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) to existing LTE network infrastructure, enabling fast rollout of reliable, secure mobile connectivity with low total cost of ownership. Additionally, the network software introduces power-saving functionality for NB-IoT and LTE-M, allowing for more than 10-year device battery lifetime.

NB-IoT, LTE Machine-type Communication (LTE-M) and the previously launched Extended Coverage GSM (EC-GSM) are complementary and address the diversity of LPWA IoT use case requirements and deployment scenarios while making best use of existing networks.

“A few months ago Ericsson announced innovations to accelerate uptake of the IoT, including our EC-GSM offering; now we are expanding on our promise to remove barriers to the IoT with the industry’s first complete cellular LPWA offering, enabling operators to address the full diversity of IoT use cases across their networks. With support for massive numbers of connections, 2016 will be the year of the IoT,” stated
Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Radio, Ericsson.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/160106_ericsson_delivers_massive_iot_244039856_c