The telco is looking to cover 2.56 million square miles this year, it says.
Verizon is to deploy its NB-IoT guard band network across the whole of the US, covering an estimated 2.56 million square miles by the end of 2018.
NB-IoT guard band technology occupies a dedicated frequency of 180 kHz for IoT applications, which means it does not share spectrum resources with commercial smartphone traffic.
In partnership with Ericsson, the telco has recently completed the first successful NB-IoT Guard band data session across its 4G LTE network. This sits alongside its LTE M network, which also carries IoT data.
The telco has claimed a number of firsts in recent years, including the first US deployment of 4G LTE, LTE Cat 1, and LTE Cat M1 networks. Verizon opened up its CAT-M1 network around a year ago.
Verizon explained that while CAT-M1 targets a wide range of applications for business customers – such as wearables, fleet and asset management – NB-IoT guard band focuses on applications that only need data rates below 100 kbps.
Bill Stone, Vice President Network Planning at Verizon said, “We are committed to providing more customer options to the IoT ecosystem by leading with new technologies and capabilities, such as NB-IoT guard band, which efficiently use dedicated spectrum and target different customer requirements for throughput and battery life.”
“The IoT ecosystem has tremendous potential for further growth and development,” added Kevin Zvokel, Head of Networks for Ericsson in North America. “With our IoT commercial software in combination with Verizon’s network, we are pleased to pave the way for future growth in this important segment.”
T-Mobile guard band tests
T-Mobile announced at the end of January that it was the “first to successfully test narrowband IoT in guard bands.”
“Yesterday the team successfully tested Narrowband IoT in guard bands in the lab, and this morning they completed the first data message in the field – two US firsts from @TMobile in 24 hours!” said Neville Ray, CTO and executive vice president at T-Mobile US.
Internet of Business says
The race to build the physical and virtual infrastructure for the IoT is continuing apace in the US. Let’s hope that the UK and other countries don’t get left behind in what will be a critical element in the success of new forms of connected business, driven by AI, analytics, robotics, and other smart devices.