Claro, Ericsson, and Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incoporated, today completed a pioneering end-to-end demonstration of Cat-M1 technology developed to support IoT applications. This is the first public test of Cat-M1 carried out in a commercial network in South America.
In the test, which happened at Claro's headquarters in São Paulo, M2M Telemetria's electric power telemetry equipment (RMT 5.0) was used, using Telit's Cat-M1 (ME910) connectivity module, with the power of MDM9206 modem connectivity from Qualcomm Technologies and the Ericsson Massive IoT Radio Access Network product.
Another test was conducted with a fleet management solution developed by Ericsson using the Quectel Cat-M1 (BG-96) connectivity module, integrated with the same IoT MDo9206 LTE modem from Qualcomm Technologies. Claro will continue to test other Cat-M1 devices and applications in its network.
The three companies intend to work together on new tests also on the LTE IoT Cat NB-1 standard, which allows connection of sensors with low bandwidth consumption, low latency and low power consumption. New IoT technologies, such as Cat-M1 and NB1, and the evolution of LTE-to-5G networks, provide a solid foundation for reducing complexity and power consumption by massively connecting devices over mobile networks, expanding coverage and the diversity of applications.
Typical IoT applications with Cat-M1 include smart watches or fitness wristbands with integrated voice communication services; devices for tracking animals (pets); point of sale terminals (POS); vending machines; and vehicle tracking with support for emergency calls (connected cars).
"Cat-M1 and NB-IoT technologies provide significant advantages over low-cost device connectivity, as well as other benefits such as longer battery life, extended coverage, and support for new use cases. The pioneering tests in conjunction with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies show that both companies have the ability to support new IoT services and technologies for Claro and that we are bringing to Brazil everything that is more modern that is developed in these technologies, "says André Sarcinelli, director of engineering for Claro.
"We will expand our IoT offerings to the corporate market, ensuring connectivity with high performance and capillarity, always ahead in new technologies and business models related to connected devices and sensors," says Ney Acyr Rodrigues, IOT Business Director at Embratel.
"Today, the bulk of IoT operator revenue comes from machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity, but in the next five years this revenue will come from other platforms, applications and services. This test ensures that Claro Brasil can capture new sources of revenue and continue delivering the best experience to its customers. It is important for the market to be aware of the fact that IoT changes the way we work. Based on our studies, we believe that the potential is more than R $ 200 billion by 2025, "analyzes Eduardo Ricotta, president of Ericsson in Brazil.
Rafael Steinhauser, president of Qualcomm Technologies in Latin America, said: "LTE IoT and its continued evolution to 5G will support IoT massification, which requires extended coverage and longer battery life compared to current 2G / GSM and LTE. "(Press Office