Hey IoT Creators,

As you may noticed, DT has recently completed the roll out of the LTE-M network in Germany, while other countries of DT’s footprint continue their rollout activities at the moment. LTE-M is yet another 3GPP LPWA technology, therefore we’d like to provide you with a better understanding on this network, especially when compared to NB-IoT.

Below you will find a summary of key advantages and features:

1. Like NB-IoT, LTE-M supports lower energy consumption:
   • Optimized Chipset-Design focused on relevant radio technologies (e.g. no MIMO)
   • Lower Power-Class of modules (20dBm)
   • Reduced Signaling and more efficient data transmission
   • Low-Power Features (PSM, LP-TAU, eDRX)
2. Deep indoor coverage is also applicable for LTE-M:
   • High Transmission Power Density: radio transmission over a narrow-band carrier with a spectrum bandwidth of only 1,4 MHz
   • Coverage Enhancement (CE) / Mode A and Mode B allow for message repetitions
3. LTE-M has impact on low cost of materials:
   • Half-Duplex mode supported
   • Unnecessary LTE-Features not supported (such as Carrier Aggregation, Dual Connectivity, Device-to-Device Services)
   • Intra-RAT not required (seamless transition between radio technologies, e.g. GSM, 3G, LTE)
   • Single antenna needed
4. Last but not least, hand-over between LTE-M cells is supported (intra-frequency and inter-frequency from 3GPP Rel. 14)

Application of each network technology is highly dependent on the use-cases and therefore should be carefully considered.

Have you been considering LTE-M based solutions for your projects? What of those features are important for your projects and in which of your use-cases LTE-M would be preferable comparing to NB-IoT? Shout out in the comments below and also sign-up if you want to get an early access to LTE-M in IoT Creators ‘Thing’

Rise to the challenge and solve global problems concerning Covid-19, Environmental Sensing, or Habitat Destruction using the new SODAQ N3 board. It leverages the advantages of upcoming LTE Cat NB2 networks such as mobility enhancement, E-Cell ID, larger TB size, two HARQ processes, multi-carrier enhancement, single-tone and multi-tone uplink. The SFF board features an integrated Microcontroller (Microchip Atmel SAMD21), GPS (uBlox EVA 8M for GPS (Galileo, GLONASS, and Beidou support) and sensors including LSM303AGR digital magnetometer and accelerometer.

In collaboration with Sodaq and u-blox we are hosting a competition in which 3 participants can win 10 new SODAQ N3 boards to prove their concept to the world. In addition, the winners will receive 10 Deutsche Telekom SIM cards with one year connectivity. Any developer, for fun or for commercial purposes, can participate in the contest until December 4, 2020. More details: http://sodaq.com/n3-launch-contest/

@Stefan-de-Lange, thanks for sharing it! Very much helpful and we will collect some more feedback in following weeks to provide for the interested users LTE-M access, so they can try currently available features

Together with The Things Industries we are combining LTE-M and LoRaWAN capabilities to provide an out-of-the-box connectivity solution allowing for easy to setup and secure device-to-cloud communication.

LTE-M features very good signal penetration, well-suited for standalone, managed gateways inside, for example, smart buildings. The solution will therefore start with a pre-configured LoRaWAN gateway from Mikrotik, connected over a LTE-M backhaul to LoRa devices and The Things Industry platform.

Use of LTE-M reduces costs compared to LTE because of more affordable hardware, and lower usage costs. Ease of use for the customer is guaranteed through no-touch provisioning of gateways, as they come pre-registered and only need powering up when installed. The gateway optionally supports LoRa 2.4GHz for global deployments.

To support IoT deployments in Germany and the Netherlands, an Early Access offer will be launched with LTE-M backhaul for solution providers and system integrators - learn more and get started

Rise to the challenge and solve global problems concerning Covid-19, Environmental Sensing, or Habitat Destruction using the new SODAQ N3 board. It leverages the advantages of upcoming LTE Cat NB2 networks such as mobility enhancement, E-Cell ID, larger TB size, two HARQ processes, multi-carrier enhancement, single-tone and multi-tone uplink. The SFF board features an integrated Microcontroller (Microchip Atmel SAMD21), GPS (uBlox EVA 8M for GPS (Galileo, GLONASS, and Beidou support) and sensors including LSM303AGR digital magnetometer and accelerometer.

In collaboration with Sodaq and u-blox we are hosting a competition in which 3 participants can win 10 new SODAQ N3 boards to prove their concept to the world. In addition, the winners will receive 10 Deutsche Telekom SIM cards with one year connectivity. Any developer, for fun or for commercial purposes, can participate in the contest until December 4, 2020. More details: http://sodaq.com/n3-launch-contest/

@Holger-Wech FYI https://iotcreators.com/en/lte-m-access/

@JeroenD said in LTE-M or NB-IoT, that is the question…:

HTTP(S) over NB-IoT, however T-Mobile decided to limit the messages to 512 bytes, use UDP and not to allow connections to the public internet. I think it would be nice to do HTTP(S) over NB-IoT

At least you can always do http(s) from IoT Creators portal to your application

@Jim-Hunt thanks for the comment. What exactly influenced on your conclusion that LTE-M is the way forward: any specific features or requirements for your projects? Interesting to learn more details (if you can share) https://iotcreators.com/en/lte-m-access/

@Stefan-de-Lange, thanks for sharing it! Very much helpful and we will collect some more feedback in following weeks to provide for the interested users LTE-M access, so they can try currently available features

Hey IoT Creators,

As you may noticed, DT has recently completed the roll out of the LTE-M network in Germany, while other countries of DT’s footprint continue their rollout activities at the moment. LTE-M is yet another 3GPP LPWA technology, therefore we’d like to provide you with a better understanding on this network, especially when compared to NB-IoT.

Below you will find a summary of key advantages and features:

1. Like NB-IoT, LTE-M supports lower energy consumption:
   • Optimized Chipset-Design focused on relevant radio technologies (e.g. no MIMO)
   • Lower Power-Class of modules (20dBm)
   • Reduced Signaling and more efficient data transmission
   • Low-Power Features (PSM, LP-TAU, eDRX)
2. Deep indoor coverage is also applicable for LTE-M:
   • High Transmission Power Density: radio transmission over a narrow-band carrier with a spectrum bandwidth of only 1,4 MHz
   • Coverage Enhancement (CE) / Mode A and Mode B allow for message repetitions
3. LTE-M has impact on low cost of materials:
   • Half-Duplex mode supported
   • Unnecessary LTE-Features not supported (such as Carrier Aggregation, Dual Connectivity, Device-to-Device Services)
   • Intra-RAT not required (seamless transition between radio technologies, e.g. GSM, 3G, LTE)
   • Single antenna needed
4. Last but not least, hand-over between LTE-M cells is supported (intra-frequency and inter-frequency from 3GPP Rel. 14)

Application of each network technology is highly dependent on the use-cases and therefore should be carefully considered.

Have you been considering LTE-M based solutions for your projects? What of those features are important for your projects and in which of your use-cases LTE-M would be preferable comparing to NB-IoT? Shout out in the comments below and also sign-up if you want to get an early access to LTE-M in IoT Creators ‘Thing’