Deutsche Telekom has extended NB-IoT roaming to twenty countries including the USA.

Suitable wireless networks are at the heart of the IoT. Without them, the potential of IoT could never come to life. With the right network technology, companies can be more productive and competitive.

Deutsche Telekom relies on licensed frequencies that are safe and compatible simply through plug and play. Now the company’s machine and sensor network for the IoT is picking up momentum. Demand is increasing, also internationally, and it wants roaming partnerships to pave the way for global IoT applications.

Deutsche Telekom’s NB-IoT has been available in Europe since 2019. LTE-M was activated in summer 2020. The application decides which IoT network is the best choice, bringing in factors such as battery life, data volume, latency times or the desire for international availability.

“With the new network technologies, the internet of things is growing even faster,” said Dennis Nikles, chief commercial officer for Deutsche Telekom IoT. “Almost unlimited possible uses offer advantages for industry and everyday life. Availability around the world is essential, also for stable supply chains. To this end, we are quickly entering into further roaming partnerships, including beyond Europe.”

NB-IoT roaming is now available in twenty countries via Deutsche Telekom, including the USA. The group has signed roaming agreements with Vodafone, Telia, Orange and Telenet in Belgium, Swisscom, and Telecom Italia.

T-Mobile’s US network can now also be used. LTE-M is available through Deutsche Telekom in ten countries. It is also available through AT&T in the USA and with NTT Docomo in Japan.

The firm is seeing numerous new applications across all industries. Whether in agriculture, industry, public safety or building management, the IoTs is becoming omnipresent for applications such as locating and maintaining production processes or machines remotely, tracking deliveries, or intelligently controlling the water and power supply: all of these ultimately save resources.

Deutsche Telekom has also entered a partnership with The Things Industries (TTI), a global LoRaWan provider. As with NB-IoT, LoRa is a narrowband network for IoT. It is based on licence-free frequency bands and requires dedicated gateways. Pre-configured LoRaWan gateways communicate with the TTI device and data platform via LTE-M. The use of LTE-M reduces the costs compared with 2G, 3G or LTE with inexpensive hardware and low usage costs. The gateways optionally support LoRa 2.4GHz for global use.