Altair Semiconductor has announced a strategic initiative with Verizon Wireless to accelerate the development of new LTE-based, commercial Internet of Things (IoT) products. Altair is demonstrating LTE’s Release 12 PSM functionality at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas, fulfilling the promise of a 10-year battery-life LTE connection.
“Our collaboration with Verizon Wireless demonstrates to us that North America’s largest communication service provider sees the value of our LTE Cat-1/0 chipsets for IoT applications,” said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development for Altair. “Altair is pioneering this new and emerging space for LTE and is focused on launching Cat-1/0 commercial products shortly.”
PSM, as specified by 3GPP Release 12, enables terminals to enter a deep-sleep mode for long periods of time after notifying the base station. This reduces significantly the amount of power associated with devices having to wakeup frequently to monitor incoming messages. PSM helps most when devices send small messages to the network on an infrequent basis.
“The Internet of Things presents new opportunities for all of us in the industry. Verizon is committed to deliver solutions that meet the needs of our customers. Altair’s low-cost, long battery life LTE Cat-1 solution, being demonstrated at the Ericsson booth, is a great example of the innovation happening in this space,” said Ro McNally, Vice President, Verizon Wireless.
Key potential applications for the Altair FourGee-1160 Cat-1 chipset are smart meters, car Telematics, security systems and smart home devices as well as other sensors and edge devices.
