Sequans Communications, an IoT chipmaker for LTE products and Sercomm, manufacturer and supplier of telecom equipment and devices, announced Wednesday the availability of a new LTE IoT button device, designed and manufactured by Sercomm and based on Sequans’ Monarch LTE Cat M1/NB1 Platform. It has a small form factor, 65 x 65 x 25 mm, operates on any carrier frequency worldwide, and is designed to sustain up to two thousands clicks.
The Sercomm LTE IoT button is a simple IoT solution that can be programmed to perform a variety of “one-click” tasks, such as mobile ordering of products or supplies, triggering of automatic alerts, or provisioning of logistical services or maintenance tasks that occur at irregular intervals. The LTE IoT button is enriched by secure, always-on and everywhere available LTE-M connectivity, eliminating security concerns and complicated Wi-Fi provisioning and setup.
The Sercomm LTE IoT button connects to the cloud via the LTE Cat M1 network, which in turn sends push notifications to user mobile phones based on pre-programmed actions. The button can be programmed for one-click, two-clicks, or long press, depending on the use case or action desired. The power of the button’s connection to the cloud is seen not only in transaction simplicity for the user, but also in an IoT enterprise’s ability to gain knowledge of consumer behavior to increase customer and brand loyalty.
The Sercomm LTE IoT button is based on Sequans’ Monarch LTE Cat M1/NB1 Platform, the world’s most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chip. The Monarch LTE Platform provides full support for power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to enable the long battery life needed by many IoT use cases, and it provides the enhanced coverage modes defined in the standard that extend coverage for deep-indoor and remote deployments. Monarch comprises baseband, RF, power management, and RAM, all integrated into a single, tiny 6.5 x 8.5 mm package.
In addition, the chip supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a single-SKU, and proprietary dynamic power management technology enabling rock bottom low power consumption of 1 micro amp for battery life of at least three years for the LTE IoT button. Sequans’ Monarch is already certified by Verizon and AT&T and in the certification process with many other carriers worldwide.
“It is exciting to think of the multitude of IoT tasks that can be performed by Sercomm’s powerful LTE IoT button device that works instantly out of the box,” said Danny Kedar, VP of Sequans’ IoT Business Unit. “Simplified LTE-M connectivity ensures that the button will find an ever growing number of uses and applications, because it is secure, and because it will work everywhere with no setup required, even in areas deep inside buildings. We are very pleased to collaborate with Sercomm to introduce this powerful new LTE IoT button.”
“As a worldwide leading manufacturer of telecom and broadband equipment, Sercomm is committed to developing innovative and cost-effective IoT solutions.” said Ben Lin, chief technology officer of Sercomm. “The Sercomm LTE Cat M1 button not only provides a connecting device in button format, but also provides operators with a new potential business model — ‘button as a service’ (BaaS). LTE-M devices draw less power than traditional LTE devices and are designed to have greater communication range under light traffic. Collaborating with Sequans has yielded a powerful, yet simple way to deploy the LTE IoT button, which we believe will appeal to network operators all over the world.”
The Sercomm LTE IoT button will be demonstrated next week at the CES 2018 show in Las Vegas.
