In a recent conversation with Mads Fischer, Europe Sales Director at SIMCom, held at electronica, the company demonstrated how they are turning their focus to the potential of non-terrestrial (NTN) networks in providing ubiquitous coverage for when cellular drops out, for whatever reason.
SIMCom, Fischer explained, has been involved in cellular connectivity “back when it was called M2M (Machine-to-Machine)”, and the one benefit of the time they have spent in this particular market has meant they can track its progress.
According to Fischer, “over the years this technology has evolved, but to a very large extent, in the beginning, in the shadow of the mobile phones. The mobile phone world was one that was driving the technology.
“[This was] up until five to six years ago, when Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and LTE-M was invented – because there are no phones using their technologies as pure IoT technology. That’s when things started to take off.”
It was thanks to chip vendors and mobile network operators recognising cellular being a “big part” of the “booming network for connectivity”. Having this kind of infrastructure has meant IoT devices can benefit by using that technology.
NTN communications
Non-terrestrial networks are being seen as some in the next step of cellular communications, by using satellite technology to provide ubiquitous coverage.
At electronica, SIMCom was showcasing one module which supports NTN or satellite communications – although Fischer acknowledged, “we are at a very early stage.” He was careful to balance his particular excitement for the future of cellular communications with an understanding that this is a continually evolving technology in its early days, relatively speaking.
Fischer noted he saw market movement in the direction of NTN communications: “We see Skylo, the main driver of NTN solutions today in the cellular space, is making agreements with network providers like T Mobile and Telefónica to make sure when you buy a SIM card from them and plug it into your device, you can use satellite communications.”
He reported that initial testing of their newly-launched module showed better than expected results. “There’s still some way to go, but scratch the surface in the sense that your customers can start to think about expanding their use cases,” he said.
Newly-launched NTN module
The aforementioned module, the SIM7070G-HP-S module has been designed to be compatible with 3GPP Release 17, outlining NTN communications, for IoT applications where terrestrial network infrastructure is limited.
“The module is based on a Qualcomm platform,” explained Fischer. “Qualcomm introduced a new radio interface to their chipset supporting satellite communication in the S-band and L-band, which is in the lower frequency and they support that already.”
“I was surprised to see how great an interest there was in this kind of technology,” he continued. “I was thinking when it was brought out that there might not be interest for everyone – maybe a few, like container tracking companies – but we’ve seen a lot of interest from different tracking companies or those dependent on having connectivity irrespective of where they are, especially in Europe.”
Agricultural and farming companies have also shown particular interest as one use case where rural and remote areas can result in cellular connectivity cutting out.
“You can see today lots of good applications have been brought to the table,” said Fischer.
5G RedCap
5G, when it was first released, was driven by mobile phone demand for higher throughput and lower latency – a market in which SIMCom doesn’t operate. “When the introduction of 5G RedCap was specified the year or year before, [it brought] 5G ready technology into the IoT space.
“It reduced the cost of the hardware significantly – a third of what a full 5G modem was – and started to offer some of the features that the IoT industry is looking for,” he explained. “They [the industry] want to have 5G technology but they don’t need the high speeds. They want lower speeds, and that’s why 5G RedCap started to offer much lower speeds.”
The current challenge with 5G RedCap is that it operates in SA (Standalone) mode, and all mobile phones and base stations are running on non-standalone mode. Currently, no existing infrastructure in Europe is running with SA mode, but the competitive advantage of offering 5G ready solutions has tempted many companies to make the switch from previous LTE solutions to 5G RedCap.
“They have a competitive advantage,” Fischer remarked, “they can say, ‘look, my device is 5G.’ It may run only LTE but once the operator enables SA in the network, then automatically, it will work on 5G.”
5G Redcap is the latest in a long line of connectivity technologies, from 2G to today. “Like everything, spectrum frequency is a resource,” Fischer said. “You need to use the resource the best possible way at any given time.” Words to live by!
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