Industrial modems manufacturer, ercogener has introduced its first Industry 4.0 modem using developed using u‑blox LTE Cat M1 cellular technology. This modem is the first to provide LTE Cat M1 cellular connectivity in the EMEA Region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and is designed to meet the requirements of the recently announced Orange LTE Cat M1 network, which will be launched across Europe in 2018.
LTE Cat M1 technology will be a key provider of connectivity in the Industry 4.0. Anticipating the launch of one of Europe’s first commercial LTE Cat M1 mobile networks, u‑blox and ercogener a member of Group Zekat, have been working with mobile network operator Orange to develop the first LTE Cat M1 cellular modem, providing connectivity and secure data transfer for a wide range of applications including asset trackers and fleet management systems.
To develop the modem, ercogener and u‑blox were faced with the challenge of integrating a mobile technology that is in the early stages of test and deployment in EMEA. The modems, which operate on bands 3 and 20 conforming to requirements by Orange, have since been tested and approved by the mobile network operator.
The LTE Cat M1 industrial modem is only the latest in a series of ercogener products to feature u‑blox technology. Over the past years, the company has provided ercogener with the 2G, 3G, and 4G technology to power several iterations of its industrial modems. Full pin-to-pin compatibility between these successive iterations of the u‑blox cellular modules all the way up the most recent LTE Cat M1 and NB‑IoT variants were crucial in enabling rapid integration and validation the led up to this success. Both the companies expect to expand their activities involving LTE Cat M1 in EMEA for the distant future too.
