American wireless major T-Mobile has launched two low-cost IoT Access packs with wireless data.
“Like everything they do, the carriers over-complicate the Internet of Things, and that leads to more hassle and cost for customers,” said Doug Chartier, senior vice president of T-Mobile.
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Usually device makers buy a wireless module from one vendor and negotiate to purchase an overpriced data plan from a carrier before bringing their IoT solution to market. This is the most complex process for device makers at present.
With T-Mobile’s IoT Access packs, customers can get modules and data – to develop the next great IoT solution.
The price for up to 5 MB of data per month will be $20 per year per device in the first year and $6 per year per device afterwards for applications that use a little data.
T-Mobile said the price will be $25 per year per device for unlimited data at 64kbps. These device customers will get $5 off the first year for each device for a limited time.
With both T-Mobile IoT Access packs, T-Mobile will cover the cost of a Sequans Cat1 module, via a bill credit from T-Mobile, up to $16 per module.
In addition, T-Mobile announced plans to continue to help customers deliver the next-generation of devices for machine-to-machine communications.
T-Mobile will deliver “Category M” and “Narrowband IoT” (NB-IoT), the next evolution of modules to help customers save money and take advantage of T-Mobile’s expanding LTE coverage.
Combined with Cat1 modules available on T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network today, these future modules will provide another technology option to give customers choice in improved data speeds and a longer product lifecycle compared to 2G network technologies.
In 2016, T-Mobile provided ways to future-proof their IoT solutions on today’s LTE networks with support for Category 1 modules.
T-Mobile also extended 2G network operations to support customer transitions to LTE through 2020.
T-Mobile was the first telecom operator to open the door for wireless development at the platform level with Twilio.
On all T-Mobile plans, during congestion the top 3 percent of data users (>28 GB/mo.) may notice reduced speeds until next bill cycle due to data prioritization.
