Yu Renjie, deputy general manager of MediaTek and general manager of the smart device business group, said that this successful test with Softbank has further consolidated MediaTek's leading position in the NB-IoT market. Softbank is Japan's leading communications service innovation company, and can pass Softbank NB. - The verification of IoT technology also reflects MediaTek's efforts to promote this program.
Since the first version of NB-IoT was frozen in June 2016, NB-IoT has become a new blue ocean for global operators to expand. According to relevant data, 45 operators around the world have deployed NB-IoT commercial networks. The number of activation sites exceeds 1 million. By the end of this year, the number of NB-IoT commercial networks is expected to reach 100, covering 45% of the world's area and 65% of the population.
As the world's leading chip design company, MediaTek has been actively promoting the NB-IoT technology and playing a foundation role. As of now, MediaTek has launched two NB-IoT chips supporting the R14 standard, which are single-mode MT2625. And dual mode MT2621.
Among them, MT2625 is the industry's smallest (16mm x 18mm) NB-IoT universal module jointly launched by MediaTek and China Mobile in June last year. It is specially designed to meet the various needs of compact and micro-antenna devices. Operating in a low-power state, MediaTek's technology allows the IoT device to be used for several years without a battery, which can further expand the application landscape of the Internet of Things.
It is worth mentioning that after testing, MT2625 has been proven to be able to run on Softbank's network. It can be used for future low-power networking devices equipped with these chipsets in Japan.
In an interview with Ji Wei.com, Yu Renjie said that overall, there are three stages in the development of NB-IoT, namely technology accumulation, product commercialization and market outbreak. Currently, NB-IoT has entered the second stage, namely The commercial phase of the terminal products will quickly enter the third phase of take-off. Next year will be a year of rapid growth of NB-IoT, and MediaTek expects to achieve relatively high growth in the NB-IoT field by the end of this year.