US telecom operator Sprint will complete its deployment of LTE Cat 1 technology across its network before July 2017 – focusing on IoT revenue.
Sprint, a SoftBank-owned telecom operator, also plans to begin deploying LTE Cat M in mid-2018 followed by LTE Cat NB1.
“We’re making great progress on our roadmap in support of the evolution of the IoT standards and Access Technology,” said Mohamad Nasser, general manager of Sprint’s IoT Business Unit.
IoT, along with wireless and wireline, is one of the three critical business lines for the Sprint Business solutions.
Sprint said LTE Cat 1 is designed to support low-power applications on the network such as vehicle telematics and industrial IoT applications.
The telecom giant said that LTE Cat M1 and LTE Cat NB1 are designed to support numerous other applications requiring ultra-low throughput and power consumption such as industrial sensors, asset trackers, or wearables.
Ericsson will be partnering with Sprint to deploy Cat M1 next year and bring the transformative power of IoT to the Sprint Nationwide network.
Sprint said LTE CAT 1 will provide future-proof solutions for clients. The company is the seventh largest provider of IoT devices in the world.
