AT&T plans nationwide deployment of its LTE-M network for Internet of Things (IoT) ahead of schedule in second quarter of 2017.  The Mexico deployment is planned by the end of the year.

The deployment will ultimately support a North American footprint across the AT&T 4G LTE network in the U.S. and Mexico. Our 4G LTE network now covers nearly 400 million people in the U.S. and Mexico.

The plans follow our successful pilot of the AT&T LTE-M Low-Power Wide-Area network at AT&T Labs in San Ramon, California. We switched on North America's first LTE-M enabled commercial site in October to support the pilot with other ecosystem players.

LTE-M will be the catalyst for large-scale IoT deployments. Devices designed to operate on the LTE-M network have advantages over traditional IoT connectivity options. You’ll see:

• Lower device costs
• Longer battery life (expected up to 10 years)
• Better coverage underground and deep inside buildings
• Module size (as small as 1/6 the size of current modules)

“Thanks to the success of our pilot, we’re on track to support LTE-M devices across our commercial network in the U.S. and Mexico ahead of schedule,” said Chris Penrose, President, Internet of Things Solutions, AT&T. “We’re seeing real momentum for LTE-M that will let us connect more end points than ever before.  And we can do it at a lower cost with superior performance and carrier-grade security.”

“We fully expect to have nationwide availability of LTE-M technology in Mexico by the end of 2017. This is huge for our enterprise customers. It’s an important step to help accelerate the speed of business,” said Kelly King, CEO, AT&T Mexico.

At AT&T Labs, we’re working with tech leaders and providers to evaluate the performance of LTE-M network and chipset technology in a variety of situations.

We’re testing LTE-M network and chipset technology in:

• Smart water meters with Capstone Metering
• Smart pallets with RM2
• Smart beverage fountains with PepsiCo
• Consumer devices with Samsung
• Shipping container monitoring with Xirgo Technologies
• Connected vehicles and fleet & asset management with CalAmp
• Home security and automation with Telular

“Seeing our devices live in the field shows our vision is quickly becoming reality. Our combined work has proven we have a technology that can cause real improvement in the logistics services industry,” said John Walsh, CEO, RM2.

We’ve launched a second LTE-M pilot location in the Columbus, Ohio, market with RM2, Capstone and other industry leaders.

We’ll continue LTE-M in San Ramon and Columbus with more players through the end of March.