Discover the New Standard in IoT: NB-IoT

According to a variety of different studies, there will be tens of billions of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices deployed the world over by 2020, with about 10% of them using cellular connectivity.

While mobile network operators (MNOs) and network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) see the tremendous revenue potential of IoT, they have been cautious in getting on the bandwagon; up until now there hasn’t been a comprehensive set of standards for IoT that MNOs could cost-efficiently adapt.

And that’s about to change.

The 3GPP, as part of the Release 13 specifications, has recently put forth its NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) standard for Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs), along with eMTC (LTE-M) and EC-GSMT-IoT standards. These standards address all the major concerns MNOs and NEMs had regarding IoT, from security to global coverage.

What’s more, with NB-IoT, operators have a lot of flexibility to upgrade their existing networks without significant outlay.

With such a monumental change to industry standards, you may be wondering what impact NB-IoT will have on 3GPP networks and other IoT standards. You may also be wondering about how you’ll address the challenges of testing IoT-based networks using the new standard.