Ericsson and MediaTek collaborate to accelerate and expand NB-IoT device ecosystem

Ericsson and MediaTek today announced a collaborative effort to extend the commercial ecosystem for NB-IoT devices. This announcement follows months of work by both companies to test and verify functionality of the MediaTek NB-IoT System-on-Chip (SoC) platforms for use with Ericsson’s Massive IoT network infrastructure.

At the Ericsson booth at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Ericsson and MediaTek demonstrated end to end integration of NB-IoT use cases with commercial end devices that are based on 3GPP Release 13, and the demo cases includes security guaranteed smart NB-IoT door-locker, NB-IoT based wearable health band and safety watch for kids.

The two companies plan to further cooperate to test technology enhancements based on 3GPP Release 14, such as enhanced data transmission features, which improve throughput data rates up to 4 times the speed of R13.

“MediaTek and Ericsson have been in close collaboration to drive ecosystem development since the start of 3G, and we are now expanding our collaboration to IoT as we seek to integrate new, low-power NB-IoT functionality into end-devices based on our combined expertise with global brands and device manufacturers,” said Luca Orsini, Head of Networks, Ericsson North East Asia. “As we look for new ways to connect end users and expand the potential of the Internet of Things, collaborations like this confirms our commitment to delivering global Massive IoT solutions for enabling new capabilities and facilitating the support of new IoT use cases and applications.”

“Ericsson is a pioneer in mobile technology and a global leader in mobile networks infrastructure,” said Jerry Yu, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intelligent Devices Business Group of MediaTek, “As we work to deploy and validate our NB-IoT solutions, this collaboration will accelerate the commercial development and enable new functionalities for the rapidly growing and evolving Internet of Things marketplace.”

As a result of testing end-to-end use cases based on 3GPP Release 13 and verifying Release 14 feature compatibility, Ericsson customers can leverage MediaTek’s deep and diverse customer base of device manufacturers and wide-ranging products like bike share companies, fitness tracking devices, connected wearable devices, smart locker, smart meters and more.

Likewise, MediaTek customers can rely on state of the art end-to-end compatibility with leading IoT network technology that support exciting 3GPP R14 NB-IoT functionalities that provide higher throughputs and capacity and can be used in a wide range of use cases.

To learn more, visit the Ericsson booth in Hall N3 at Mobile World Congress Shanghai where use-cases for this technology will be on display.