Telit Cinterion, an end-to-end IoT solutions enabler, has officially confirmed the news of its ME310M1-W1 module receiving approval for use on the AT&T network. According to certain reports, the approval basically makes it possible for IoT specialists and their customers to begin using the ME310M1-W1 immediately on AT&T’s LTE-M network, with the devices expected to continue performing optimally as AT&T upgrades its cellular network to 5G Massive IoT. More on the same would reveal how ME310M1-W1 is the first cellular Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) module based on the Sony’s Altair ALT1350 chipset to be approved by AT&T. On the other hand, ALT1350 also happens to be the world’s first chipset that supports both unlicensed spectrum and satellite connectivity in a single package, enabling faster development, lower power, smaller size, and new use cases. Coming back to ME310M1, it is ideal for smart utility meters, asset tracking, industrial sensors, precision agriculture, and other IoT applications whose decade-plus service life exceeds what traditional designs can provide. Talk about the module on a slightly deeper level, though, we begin from the promise of best-in-class power consumption, a promise where you can expect extended service life of battery powered IoT devices. This, in turn, allows for smaller devices to have longer battery expectations, and in case that wasn’t enough, then we must mention how it also eliminates the expense of periodically replacing batteries.
“AT&T’s certification of the ME310M1 is a milestone for our new portfolio of ultra-compact cellular LPWA modules powered by Sony’s Altair ALT1350 chipset,” said Jitender Vohra, Sr. Director of Carrier Relations at Telit Cinterion. “The Telit Cinterion ME310M1 gives systems integrators, device OEMs and their enterprise customers the confidence that their LPWA IoT applications can always accommodate additional connectivity options, whether it’s the latest 3GPP Release 17 NTN protocol or sub-1 GHz unlicensed spectrum.”
Next up, we have a flexible SIM technology. You see, the ME310M1-W1 will become available with an embedded SIM (eSIM) in the module package, as well as with hardware ready to support the technology. Such a package, like you can guess, enables streamlined manufacturing, product deployments and enterprise-grade security based on integrated Secure Element (iSE). Moving on to the availability of short range radio support, it essentially facilitates easy integration with mesh networks and seamless operation across multiple air interface technologies. Owing to that, the stated support is able to deliver bonus deployment options, both at the time of installation and in the future. Alongside short range radio support, there is also present comprehensive support for multiple location technologies, including Wi-Fi scan and GNSS. This particular treads a long distance when the agenda is to maximize flexibility when choosing technologies for indoor and outdoor positioning applications, such as tracking high-value medical equipment around a hospital campus. Hold on, we still have a couple of bits left to unpack, considering we still haven’t touched upon the module’s roadmap for compliance with 3GPP Release 15/ 16/ 17 features like IoT data communication over non-terrestrial networks (NTN). The idea behind providing that roadmap is to give users future-proof flexibility to fallback to satellite technology when cellular coverage is not available. Rounding up highlights for us is an assortment of value added services, available next to application hosting capabilities. In essence, these services and hosting capabilities should come in handy to lower total cost of ownership (TCO), while simultaneously simplifying design and operation over the lifecycle.
“AT&T’s certification of Telit Cinterion’s ALT1350 based module is an important milestone towards a connected world with the Lowest Power Consumption Cellular IoT Solution” said Dima Feldman, VP Product Management and Marketing at Sony Semiconductor. “Partnering with Telit Cinterion will bring end-to-end solutions to the IoT market leveraging the ALT1350 SoC with a high level of integration, multiple radio and location technologies, and edge processing to build the most effective IoT devices.”
