Sprint has partnered with telematics pioneer CalAmp to broaden the carrier's connected car, fleet and asset management efforts through its LTE Cat M IoT network.

CalAmp, a public company since 1983, is expected to start delivering IoT software and enabling devices via the Cat M network in late 2019 or early 2020. "This helped us to launch into Cat M hardware," says Tom Wiese, director, North America sales, IoT, at CalAmp.

Wiese says that the company will support software such as "supply chain integrity" systems.

Using Sprint Curiosity IoT, which is a "dedicated, distributed and virtualized" core network and operating system built specifically for IoT, the operator's customers and channel partners will be able to provision CalAmp's devices and use CalAmp's software services to develop their own market offerings.

Sprint first launched its nationwide Cat M network nationwide in the US in mid-2018. AT&T and Verizon have Cat M and NB-IoT networks up now. T-Mobile has an NB-IoT network.

Sprint recently partnered with the city of Peachtree, Ga., to reveal its 5G IoT work in Curiosity Lab. This work is largely centered around work with autonomous vehicles and drones at the moment.

As for 5G, "we definitely are keeping an eye on it," says Wiese. But he suspects that IoT will have a long life on the variants of 4G LTE built for the Internet of Things.

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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading