AT&T said it plans to decommission its narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network by early next year. Verizon and T-Mobile, meanwhile, continue to boast of their respective NB-IoT services.
AT&T said it will decommission its narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network next year. But Verizon and T-Mobile are forging ahead with their NB-IoT offerings.
AT&T's decision comes as the market for IoT services continues to evolve. NB-IoT is one of several IoT networking flavors, but it hasn't gained much traction outside of China. Meanwhile, other IoT networking technologies including LoRa, LTE-M and 5G RedCap are making headway.
"We are improving our Internet of things (IoT) services for business customers by moving from Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) to the LTE-M network," AT&T said in a statement first reported by RCR Wireless News. "This change will provide more data capacity for both fixed and mobile devices. As a result, we've stopped the certification of new NB-IoT devices and the sale of data plans utilizing the NB-IoT network. We're working closely with customers to make this process as seamless as possible."
AT&T added that it's working with its existing NB-IoT customers to transition them to LTE-M while it phases out and decommissions its NB-IoT network. The operator declined to answer questions about how many NB-IoT customers it has, though it reported a total of 128 million "connected devices" on its network earlier this year. Such devices include monitoring devices and automobile systems, among others.
AT&T said it hopes to finish decommissioning its NB-IoT network by the first quarter of 2025.
AT&T launched its NB-IoT network in 2019 as a complement to the LTE-M IoT network it launched in 2017.
NB-IoT apathy
AT&T isn't the only big wireless network operator to shift away from NB-IoT. Japan's Docomo shut off its NB-IoT network in 2020, and officials from Orange have said they prefer other options.
"This was entirely predictable," analyst Joe Madden of Mobile Experts wrote in response to questions from Light Reading. He explained that NB-IoT isn't designed to share networking resources with other types of traffic, unlike technologies such as LTE-M or 5G RedCap.
"Some people argue that NB-IoT only requires 180 kHz to 200 kHz of bandwidth, but that is a significant amount of capacity in a mobile network and it's not efficient for the mobile operators to set aside spectrum that can only be used for IoT," Madden wrote.
Madden added that few Western operators have gotten much out of NB-IoT. "NB-IoT has been used heavily in China with heavy subsidies on chipsets to make the devices almost free," he said. "But in the West, the economics are not as favorable and very few operators will stick with it."
Indeed, research firm Omdia (a sister company to Light Reading) reported earlier this year that China accounts for nearly 90% of global NB-IoT connections. The firm reported that LoRa – a low-cost networking technology that can be used in unlicensed spectrum bands – continues to be popular in other parts of the world.
NB-IoT alternatives
LTE-M and 5G RedCap are IoT networking technologies for cellular network operators working in licensed spectrum. Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T all offer LTE-M. As for RedCap – a technology designed for IoT services on 5G networks – T-Mobile has announced a commercial launch of RedCap services, and Verizon said it supports RedCap.
As AT&T bows out of NB-IoT, both T-Mobile and Verizon continue to promote the networking technology. Indeed, T-Mobile confirmed to Light Reading that it "currently has no plans to shut down its NB-IoT network." Similarly, Verizon said its NB-IoT service runs on its 700MHz LTE network "and we have no imminent plans to turn that down."
"NB-IoT is basic, low-power, wide area (LPWA) technology focused on very small, infrequent data exchanges, has very long battery life and low cost. NB-IoT is ideal for fixed use cases like Smart Meters, Industrial Sensors, and Environmental sensors," T-Mobile explains on its website.
Similarly, Verizon describes NB-IoT as "best suited for low-power, ultralow throughout, delay-tolerant, event-triggered, simple stationary (idle mode mobility) sensors."
Meanwhile, T-Mobile said LTE-M (also called Cat-M or Cat-1) is an "enhanced low power, wide-area (LPWA) technology supporting higher bandwidth, devices in motion, over-the-air updates, and voice functionality. Cat-M/Cat-1/LTE-Mis ideal for use cases like wearables, facilities & consumable monitoring, and fleet & asset tracking."
Article updated November 20 to include information from Verizon.
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