Today, The Things Industries (TTI), a global LoRaWAN® Network provider, is partnering with Deutsche Telekom, one of the world’s leading telecommunication providers.

Partners are combining their LTE-M and LoRaWAN capabilities to provide an out-of-the-box connectivity solution allowing for easy setup and secure device-to-cloud communication.

LTE-M features very good signal penetration, well-suited for standalone, managed gateways inside, for example, smart buildings. The solution will therefore start with a smart building starter kit, comprising a pre-configured LoRaWAN gateway from Mikrotik, connected over a LTE-M backhaul to TTI’s device and data platform.

Combining LoRaWAN and LTE-M

Use of LTE-M reduces costs compared to LTE because of more affordable hardware, and lower usage costs. Ease of use for the customer is guaranteed through no-touch provisioning of gateways, as they come pre-registered and only need powering up when installed. The gateway optionally supports LoRa 2.4GHz for global deployments.

"This collaboration is a further step on our way to an open IoT network," said Mangal Afzal, Deutsche Telekom IoT. "New interfaces allow us to unlock the full potential of IoT.”

The Things Industries and Deutsche Telekom partner

The expected efforts enable IoT to move from local installations to large-scale deployments while addressing three major topics in the IoT market today: security, scalability and total cost of ownership.

The partnership introduces a convergence of connectivity solutions on the market that brings the high degree of scalability and manageable costs that local IoT networks need.

To support IoT deployments in Germany and the Netherlands, an Early Access offer will be launched with LTE-M backhaul for solution providers and system integrators.