MFA, formerly the MulteFire Alliance, is to deliver a set of ‘technology blueprints’ so every different business in every different industrial ‘vertical’ can specify and source industrial 5G devices, and the cellular side of the Industry 4.0 market moves faster. Its shift to ecosystem-building...
In a stage-managed webinar about industrial 5G, Siemens took the opportunity yesterday to talk up its emerging private 5G portfolio yesterday, including in-house radio and core networking elements. Private 5G, using privately licensed spectrum, is a key to unlock Industry 4.0, the firm said;...
KDDI-owned IoT connectivity provider Soracom has announced new investment from six technology firms, including from two major IoT customers, in the form Nippon Gas (NICIGAS) and Sourcenext Corporation in the Japanese utility industry, as well as from Japan-based trio Hitachi, Secom, and Sony Group,...
Irish IoT antenna company Taoglas has acquired Australia-based IoT solution provider Smartsensor Technologies for an undisclosed fee. The company will be integrated into Taoglas’ ‘connected smart services’ business unit which provides managed IoT services. Taoglas has signposted further acquisitions.
Smartsensor Technologies, founded in 2011, bundles...
Nokia has introduced new software to enable operators and enterprises to remotely manage cellular IoT devices with embedded and integrated SIM (eSIM and iSIM) functionality. The software works with standard consumer devices, as well, but eSIM and iSIM technologies make most difference in the...
Qualcomm is teaming up with Capgemini to “unlock” private 5G for Industry 4.0, based on its new Release 16-capable 5G RAN platform and radio modem. Qualcomm and Capgemini will develop an off-the-shelf private network system, “tested and validated”, to provide clients a faster route...
After all the false starts and funny looks, is it time to take MulteFire seriously? Nokia says so. And, as the mainstream telecoms market wakes up to the Finnish firm’s long-time message about the industry-changing potential of private cellular, it is probably worth listening....
The LTE-based MulteFire standard, one of the pioneer technologies in the private cellular market, is alive and kicking – well, alive, anyway – and also mutating into something brand new, which is potentially more powerful for the telecoms industry’s great hopes for 5G as...
Orange has banded together with hardware, software, design, and manufacturing companies in the IoT space to accelerate deployment of cellular IoT in Europe. Canadian module maker Sierra Wireless, French-Italian chip maker STMicroelectronics, and French manufacturing and design firm Lacroix are its new crewmates, working...
China-based IoT module maker SIMCom is offering its SIM7070 series NB-IoT device with an embedded SIM (eSIM) from German chipmaker Infineon, making the 24 mm x 24 mm SIM7070 the most compact eSIM-enabled module on the market. It is “significantly smaller” than standard eSIM-based...
The industrial city of Kawasaki, in the greater Tokyo area, has signed with Japanese IT conglomerate Fujitsu to develop a new ‘smart city’ fabric using the latest connectivity, compute, and analytics solutions. Specifically, the city has commissioned the firm to install “next-generation” 5G, AI,...
"Ecosystems" for industry may be a buzzword, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to it, and a online panel discussion among representatives from Johnson and Johnson, Rockwell Automation and Analog Devices showed just how deeply companies are rethinking their relationships with one another and...
Last week, Qualcomm released a glut of IoT solutions, variously offering Wi-Fi and 5G connectivity for enterprise and industrial IoT applications. The firm, compelled by rising demand for higher-grade IoT units as a consequence in part of changing Covid-era work practices, has released seven...
Austin-based chip-maker Silicon Labs has released a hardware and software solution for large-scale mesh networks based on the Wirepas Massive protocol. It has partnered with Finnish IoT connectivity company Wirepas on the release, which covers an expansion of its existing EFR32BG21 (BG21) and EFR32BG22...
Global cellular IoT module shipments increased by 14% in 2020, reaching 303 million, according to a recent Berg Insight report. Even though the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt by the industry, the result represents a new record level of shipments. In 2019,...
IoT device maker MultiTech Systems has acquired LoRaWAN device vendor Radio Bridge for an undisclosed fee. The deal positions MultiTech to provide “everything from” sensors, embedded communications devices, modems and gateways, cloud connectivity, and device management services, it said.
Both firms are based in Minnesota,...
Bosch has opened a new smart factory for silicon wafer production in Dresden, capital of the eastern German state of Saxony. The firm has invested around €1 billion in the new plant, unveiled today (June 7) and set to start production next month. It...
Arm is moving parts of its microcontroller abstraction layer for Cortex-M processors into an open collaboration platform to help embedded system developers to integrate and manage software components and improve code reuse across IoT projects. The company has also moved part of its next-generation...
A hybrid version of the ST8500 system-on-chip (SoC) from Switzerland-headquartered STMicroelectronics has been certified for both power-line and wireless communications. It is the first chipset to receive the new ‘hybrid’ G3-PLC power-line and wireless certificate, published in March, from the G3-PLC Alliance for smart-grid,...
Suntory Beverage & Food, the soft drinks division of Japanese drinks company Suntory, has recruited Hitachi to deploy its Lumada-branded IoT platform and IoT analytics applications at its newly opened water plant in Omachi, in the Nagano Prefecture in Japan. Separately, HItachi has announced...
In 2017, Kurt Busch was suddenly a man in a hurry. He had a lightbulb moment watching his youngest child talk with his iPad, and in that instant saw an opportunity to drive artificial intelligence and machine learning innovation into voice-activated systems and transform...
IoT module maker Telit has introduced a new cloud-based platform called Telit NExT to give service providers and enterprise users access to cellular IoT networks in 190 countries. The product, presented as a ‘core network’, taps into roaming agreements with around 600 networks globally,...
Qualcomm has announced its first “purpose-built” 5G modem for industrial IoT applications, scheduled for release next month (June 2021). The new modem-to-antenna solution is pitched at the manufacturing, energy, agriculture, construction, mining, and retail sectors. The Qualcomm 315 5G IoT Modem-RF System incorporates the...
The crucial trend in the internet-of-things (IoT) space to bring miniaturised machine learning (ML) into battery-powered edge devices is gathering pace. Chip maker Infineon Technologies has just announced a new feature in its ModbusToolbox to help developers bring ML into embedded IoT devices.
The move...