Connectivity Technology Blog

Couple of years back I blogged about how Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom (DT) are radically improving mobile reception on trains in Germany with the expectation that in future, passengers using the DT network will be able to make calls and surf the internet on all routes without interruption – in much better quality than currently available. Now in another announcement , Deutsche Bahn (DB), Ericsson, O2 Telefónica and Vantage Towers have announced that they are working together to develop a solution that would establish an extensive 5G mobile communications infrastructure along train tracks in Germany. The press release said: The new infrastructure will give train passengers gigabit speeds for their telephone and data connections and provide high-performance transmission technology for further digitalizing rail operations. Today the partners received the official word from the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) that they will receive funding to test innovativ...

There are just too many options when it comes to IoT. LoRaWAN is probably the winner from the unlicensed camp with plethora of other options also available. On the licensed front while LTE-M and NB-IoT haven't enjoyed the success they were touted to, other cIoT options aren't doing that badly. In their recently released whitepaper entitled, 'Understanding the benefits of LTE Cat 1bis technology', Qualcomm explains: LTE-M and NB-IoT are two IoT-specific standards introduced in 3GPP release 13. They provide low power operation, extended coverage range and low data rate; they are aptly called low-power wide area networking, or LPWAN technologies. In Release 13, LTE Cat 1bis was also added to the standards. Cat 1bis requires one receive- (Rx) antenna, making it easier and cheaper to build devices in smaller form factors. Recently, IoT use cases involving drones and industrial automation have evolved, requiring either higher throughput, lower latency or both. 5G or higher-...