Nokia, Ericsson and Intel Back New Narrowband LTE Standard for IoT

Nokia, Ericsson and Intel came together to back a new Internet-of-Things(IoT) standard, Narrow-Band Long-Term Evolution (NB-LTE). NB-LTE, an optimized variant of the widely deployed 4G LTE technology, positioned for the IoT market due to its low implementation cost, ease of use and power efficiency. Nokia plans to work closely with Ericsson and Intel to develop and bring to market the products needed for the commercialization of NB-LTE, timed with market demand.

Intel intends to support commercial roll-out of the technology with a roadmap for NB-LTE chipsets and product upgrades beginning in 2016 that will enable slim form factors. The products will add to Intel's growing LTE portfolio. Nokia and Ericsson will provide the required network upgrades to support the extension of existing LTE networks with NB-LTE, optimized for low power Machine-to-Machine communication.

Thomas Norén, vice president and Head of Product Management, Business Unit Radio, Ericsson
Cellular networks already cover 90 percent of the world's population so it makes sense to leverage this global footprint to support and drive IoT adoption through the standardization of Narrow-Band LTE. 

Stefan Wolff, vice president, Platform Engineering Group and general manager of the Multi-Comms Business Unit, Intel
We are excited to collaborate with two leading network vendors Ericsson and Nokia on the next wave of wireless innovation to connect the growing IoT market segment, and to further grow the momentum for Intel's LTE portfolio and roadmap with NB-LTE.