AT&T has decided for nationwide deployment of its LTE-M network for the Internet of Things (IoT) ahead of schedule in the second quarter of 2017. The roll out will ultimately support a North American footprint across the AT&T 4G LTE network in the U.S. and Mexico which covers nearly 400 million subscribers.
The plans will follow the successful establishment of the AT&T LTE-M Low-Power Wide-Area network at AT&T Labs in San Ramon, California which is also North America's first LTE-M enabled commercial site.
According to AT&T, LTE-M will be the catalyst for large-scale IoT deployments and the devices designed to operate on the LTE-M network will have significant advantages over traditional IoT connectivity options such as lower device costs, longer battery life (expected up to 10 years), better coverage underground and deep inside buildings as well as tiny module sizes (as small as 1/6 the size of current modules).
AT&T is currently testing LTE-M network and chipset technology in:
