Qualcomm and global IoT leader, Gizwits will together to deliver the world’s first commercial 2G cellular modules with field upgrades to LTE IoT (eMTC/Cat-M1 and NB-IoT/Cat-NB1).
The Quectel BG36 module - aimed to be compatible with China Mobile’s network and manufactured by Quectel based on the Qualcomm MDM9206 LTE IoT modem– will be powered by the Gizwits IoT cloud services and designed to help developers, device manufacturers and service providers to create economical 2G solutions, which are also designed to be flexible and long-lasting by supporting future over-the-air activation of NB-IoT and eMTC as the cellular ecosystem transitions toward the latest LTE IoT standards.
This capability is intended to allow IoT devices to use the cellular technology that is best suited for today’s use cases, while being able to accommodate emerging requirements throughout the device lifetime - for instance, supporting commercial and enterprise solutions in case of new cellular network technology deployments and changes, or allowing end-customers to take advantage of new network features and more convenient connectivity economics that arise later on.
Following the planned initiative with Gizwits and Quectel around BG36, Qualcomm Technologies plans to make modem upgrade capabilities broadly available through Qualcomm Wireless Edge Services (WES) by the first half of 2019, soon after the launch of Qualcomm WES (expected to launch by the end of this year). Qualcomm WES will be designed to facilitate the deployment of edge devices at scale, by providing efficient zero-touch life-cycle management through services such as plug-n-play on-boarding with security, on-demand provisioning, over-the-air feature activation of relevant chipset features, as well as third party service enablement throughout the device life-cycle.
The Quectel BG36 module will be powered by the Qualcomm MDM9206 LTE IoT modem, a purpose-built solution with global multimode capabilities, including eMTC/Cat-M1, NB-IoT/Cat-NB1 and 2G/E-GPRS, which is designed to support the development of cost-efficient, low-power devices with multi-year battery life and greater coverage for the next-generation of IoT services as compared to traditional LTE connectivity. LTE IoT is a suite of complementary narrowband technologies pioneered by Qualcomm and engineered to deliver optimized performance and efficiency for a wide range of low-power, wide-area Internet of Things. The continued LTE IoT evolution will help address the needs of the massive IoT, complemented with the acceleration of 5G New Radio (NR) – the global 5G standard.
