Worldwide coverage - Implementation existing product

[Bram van Herck]

Hallo,

Today I joined the seminar about "Using the nRF9160 as a Serial LTE Modem".
It might be an interesting option for us to switch over to Nordic, we are currently using Ublox as our modems.

But we do want are delivering products all over the world and it would be nice to have a all in the box solution.

As far as my knowledge goes now I would say we have to start use LTE-Cat M1 for our future products.
But is this the way to go and will provide this us global coverage.
Our telecom provider does not have the contracts and networks to provide this yet.

Are there for example also options on using 2g, or 3g on the nRF9160?

The way I understand it now is the LTE is a band that's part of 4g, 5g, and further future standards?

To implement the modem I consider buying the nRF9160-DK so I can use the Serial modem program connecting it by uart to our existing application.

Please advice.

[Heidi]

Hi!

So the nRF9160 DK has support for both LTE-M Cat1 and NB-IoT, which are a type of LPWAN radio technology developed by 3GPP to enable Internet of Things applications.

LTE (or 4G, and 2G, 3G and 5G) is a different protocol with larger bandwidth and higher uplink and downlink speeds. The nRF9160 SiP modem does not support anything other than LTE-M Cat1 and NB-IoT. 

Deployment of these new IoT networks is still underway (GSMA Mobile IoT Deployment Map), but since the release of both LTE-M and NB-IoT, the coverage has grown rapidly so I would assume it's safe to say this will continue to grow until worldwide coverage is achieved. 

We have both Arkessa and iBasis as coverage partners, so I would suggest contacting them as well to hear about the possibilities of a global product.  

You should also contact your RSM if you haven't already done this. PM me your location and I will send you their contact information. 

Best regards,

Heidi