LTE for IoT chip leader Sequans Communications S.A. and multinational telecommunications provider and industry recognized IoT leader Telefónica have completed the first live LTE Cat M1 data call in Europe.
The call was conducted at Telefónica’s Innovation Lab in Madrid, Spain, and showed an IoT device, powered by Sequans’ Monarch LTE-M / NB-IoT chip, communicating with an LTE base station over-the-air.
This is a major milestone for Telefonica on the way to a commercial LTE-M network launch, which will support cost-effective, widespread deployment of IoT.
Georges Karam, Sequans CEO, said:
“This first live LTE-M data call confirms that LTE for IoT in Europe will soon be a reality. Telefonica is taking an early lead among operators in Europe and we are pleased to work with them in reaching this important milestone.”
Sequans’ Monarch LTE platform is the world’s first and most highly optimized LTE-M (Cat M1) and NB-IoT (Cat NB1) chip. Monarch is purpose-built for narrowband IoT applications, including metering, wearables, and other low data, low power M2M and IoT devices. Monarch complies with the ultra-low-power and reduced complexity feature requirements of the 3GPP release 13 LTE Advanced Pro standard, defining narrowband, low data rate LTE technology for machine type communications. Monarch provides full support for power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to enable the long battery life needed by many IoT use cases, and it provides the enhanced coverage modes defined in the standard that extend coverage for deep-indoor and remote deployments. Monarch comprises baseband, RF, power management, and RAM, all integrated into a single, tiny 6.5 x 8.5 mm package. In addition, Monarch supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a single SKU, and proprietary dynamic power management technology enabling battery life of 10+ years.
