Verizon Launches Near-Nationwide NB-IoT Network

Verizon has launched its low-cost, low-power LTE-based NB-IoT network across 92% of the country.

Narrow-band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) shares bandwidth with LTE to enable machine-to-machine communications, for devices such as alarm panels, factory equipment, parking meters, and more. The low-battery power technology is designed to use 100 Kbit/s, or less.

Unveiled at this week's IoT World show in Santa Clara, the Verizon plan costs $1 a month for downloads of 50KBs. The data bucket can be shared amongst devices, Verizon says.

Verizon is following in the footsteps of T-Mobile and AT&T in deploying a NB-IoT nationwide network. T-Mobile and AT&T launched their networks in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Verizon will launch the remaining 8% of the network in the "coming weeks," according to the Verizon spokeswoman.

Only Sprint doesn't currently have a nationwide NB-IoT network, but is considering 5G for future IoT applications.

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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading