Verizon Wireless, Ericsson and Sequans Complete LTE Category 1 Device and Network Trial

Verizon Wireless, Ericsson and Sequans Complete LTE Category 1 Device and Network Trial

CAT1 expected to enable proliferation of cellular IoT and M2M devices on LTE networks.

Sequans Communications S.A. and Verizon Wireless announced today that the companies had recently collaborated with Ericsson to conduct testing of LTE UE Category 1 devices powered by Sequans on a Verizon trial network using Ericsson 4G LTE infrastructure.
LTE Category 1 (CAT1) devices have a maximum downlink speed of 10 Mbps, and are expected to provide significant reductions in cost, size and power consumption compared to their higher performance counterparts typically found in smartphones and other consumer mobile data devices. These advantages are expected to enable the rapid adoption of LTE technology in the Internet of Things, including machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer wearable devices, where high throughput is not a key requirement.

The trial took place in the fourth quarter of 2014, and successfully proved the ability of CAT1 devices to coexist with other higher-performance LTE devices. Verizon’s nationwide 4G LTE network provides the extensive coverage to support low cost LTE-only CAT1 devices to enable the Internet of Things.

Georges Karam, Sequans CEO, said:

“This work is an exciting addition to our ongoing work with Verizon which included the certification and commercialization of CAT4 chipsets for use in retail devices such as the Verizon Ellipsis Jetpack MHS800L. And now we look forward to helping the Internet of Things flourish on Verizon’s 4G LTE network using our CAT1-optimized solutions.”

See Sequans at Mobile World Congress, March 2-5, 2015, Hall 7, Stand 7I81.

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