At last week’s Embedded World in Nuremberg, Quectel announced certification and testing services so its customers can rapidly certify their IoT devices with regulatory organisations such as the FCC, IC, CE, Anatel, RCM, KC, Jate and Telec and carrier organisations including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Rogers, Telus and Vodafone.

This service should enable customers’ devices to gain certifications in under eight weeks.

Certification across these disciplines is complex to achieve, involves multiple layers of certification from disparate organisations and, typically, local and regional authorities award certifications for device deployments in their own territories.

The services span regulatory, conformance and carrier compliance requirements plus certifications for industry-specific devices and environmental and safety-related certifications, such as such as Atex, RoHS, Reach and Weee.

“Going directly to certification or carrier organisations can result in it taking up to six months for IoT devices to gain certifications,” said Yoon Seungryoul, North American certification director for Quectel Wireless. “For many IoT use cases, a six-month delay to launch is unacceptable and could make or break a proposition in markets where being first-to-launch is a critical differentiator. This is why Quectel, with our certification services, is bringing to customers our existing knowledge of certification and testing processes and our relationships with authorities, certification bodies, regulators and carriers to provide our customers with the industry’s fastest and most cost-effective go-to-market offering.”

To help customers further, the certification services include a pre-scan service in Quectel’s labs so certification compliance can be assessed before applying to certification authorities, thereby saving time on non-compliant certification applications. Another benefit for those that use both Quectel modules and antennas in their design, is that device testing is included for free. Quectel also offers technical support facilities and debugging to address common, and not so common, certification issues.

Quectel’s capabilities include project management, administration, lab and carrier communications and management, checking and managing test scope, providing the necessary on-site support, and testing and debugging. In addition, Quectel will fix issues as they arise and negotiate waivers where appropriate.

“We’re proud to have launched Quectel Certification Services and we’re ready to provide full, global certification consultation and service to integrated device customers that have products that are based on Quectel modules,” said Seungryoul. “Quectel Certification Services have been gaining certifications for Quectel’s own modules and customers’ devices for many years, so we’re delighted to be bringing this expertise to customers and helping them accelerate time-to-market and build a smarter world.”

Also at the show, Quectel announced the launch of the CC200A-LB satellite module for IoT industries, which uses satellite IoT connectivity provided by Orbcomm. The module provides global coverage and connectivity at a cost-effective price and with low latency, making it suitable for applications including maritime, transportation, heavy equipment, agriculture, mining, and oil and gas monitoring.

The module is designed to enable communications in remote areas without cellular network coverage. Orbcomm provides global connectivity over the IsatData Pro (IDP) satellite service, using the Inmarsat GEO constellation and L band, and features two-way communication, low latency, and nearly-real-time reporting capabilities.

Orbcomm’s satellite IoT connectivity can be blended with cellular bandwidth to create dual-mode IoT applications with reliability, redundancy and ubiquitous coverage. The CC200A-LB satellite module is designed with an LCC+LGA form factor, with dimensions of 37 by 38 by 3.35mm. The module also supports multi-constellation GNSS and supports intuitive AT command set.

“We are thrilled to work with Orbcomm and introduce the CC200A-LB satellite module to the market,” said Norbert Muhrer, president of Quectel Wireless. “Our satellite module provides reliable connectivity, global coverage and low latency, making it ideal for IoT applications across a broad range of industries including maritime, transportation, heavy equipment and natural resources. We look forward to working with our customers to optimise the module design and meet their specific needs.”

Fran Bogle, Orbcomm’s chief revenue officer, added: “Orbcomm’s long-time expertise in satellite IoT combined with Quectel’s market leadership in the cellular space creates a powerful satellite platform at significant scale and extremely attractive price points for a wide variety of global IoT applications. Together with Quectel, we will enable customers to leverage the versatility and reliability of satellite and dual-mode connectivity to ensure continuous and cost-effective communication for managing remote and mobile assets anytime, anywhere.”

With a message size of up to 6.4kbyte for transmission and up to 10kbyte for reception, the CC200A-LB has latency of about 20s for a 100byte message. Typical transmission latency is 20s at 100byte and 40s at 1kbyte, and its typical reception latency is 12s at 100byte and 70s at 1kbyte.

The satellite module will be backwards compatible with Orbcomm’s future OGx services to be launched towards the end of this year, which expand both speed and size of message.

Available as part of the support package is the Quectel QCMP connectivity management platform, which provides a centralised and easy-to-use method for managing and monitoring IoT devices and their connections. The platform performs real-time analysis of connectivity and network performance.

The module can be purchased in isolation or with the appropriate Quectel antenna, YEGM023AA, optimised for satellite connections and available with screw mount or magnetic mounting options. The antenna measures 75 by 84 by 25mm and is appropriate for GPS L1, Glonass L1, Galileo E1 and BDS E1.