LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - US telecoms giant AT&T announced plans for a nationwide deployment of its LTE-M network for Internet of Things uses ahead of schedule in second quarter of 2017 on Wednesday, with AIM-traded technology firm RM2 playing a significant testing role.
AT&T said it was also planning LTE-M availability in Mexico by the end of the year.

It said the roll out would ultimately support a North American footprint across the AT&T 4G LTE network in the US and Mexico, adding that its 4G LTE network now covered nearly 400 million people in the two countries.

The plans followed the company's successful pilot of the AT&T LTE-M Low-Power Wide-Area network at AT&T Labs in San Ramon, California, with North America's first LTE-M enabled commercial site switched on in October to support the pilot with other ecosystem players.

AT&T claimed LTE-M would be the catalyst for large-scale IoT deployments, with devices designed to operate on the LTE-M network having significant advantages over traditional IoT connectivity options in the areas of device cost, battery life, coverage underground and in buildings, and module size.

"Thanks to the success of our pilot, we're on track to support LTE-M devices across our commercial network in the US and Mexico ahead of schedule," said Chris Penrose, president of Internet of Things solutions at AT&T.

"We're seeing real momentum for LTE-M that will let us connect more endpoints than ever before.

"And we can do it at a lower cost with superior performance and carrier-grade security."

AT&T Labs, added it was working with "tech leaders and providers" to evaluate the performance of LTE-M network and chipset technology in a variety of situations, working with RM2 in the testing of smart pallets.

"Seeing our devices live in the field shows our vision is quickly becoming reality," said RM2 CEO John Walsh.

"Our combined work has proven we have a technology that can cause real improvement in the logistics services industry."

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