AT&T bolstered enterprise IoT support with a performance monitoring platform that taps into metrics from its traditional 4G LTE and 5G network and plans to add more robust security monitoring down the road.

The new offering is broadly dubbed AT&T IoT Network Intelligence. This is the overarching platform that provides visibility into the performance of an enterprise’s connected ecosystem.

The first commercial product out of this is a “standard” iteration that provides device-level KPIs from those devices running on an AT&T IoT network. That insight includes information such as signal strength, data throughput, and latency of those devices, insight that can be used to troubleshoot device or network issues. It also includes information on location-based performance and device-level analytics to further fine-tune troubleshooting analysis.

This insight can be managed through a dashboard application.

AT&T hinted about future platform updates, including through its network-based mobile threat and anomaly detection service, with a specific focus toward meeting use cases tied to verticals like health care, transportation, and industrial.

The AT&T service echoes that of rival T-Mobile US, which late last year launched its T-Platform. That service provides a centralized control portal over the carrier’s business services, including its Edge Control platform, its Advanced Network Solutions (ANS) services, business internet security offerings, IoT devices, wireless connectivity, and collaboration tools.

“Think of T-Platform as the single pane of glass” for service management, T-Mobile for Business Chief Marketing Officer Mo Katibeh explained to SDxCentral.

The service includes a free tier that provides organizational-level visibility across all products and services that a customer has purchased, and a paid “advanced tier” that delivers expanded capabilities, including line and device visibility, and enhanced control features.

Katibeh said the carrier has already been testing T-Platform and has “actually onboarded tens of thousands of existing T-Mobile for Business customers into the platform. We're monitoring active users, daily, monthly, like all the standard metrics that you would but we're seeing very strong engagement with the product.”

AT&T’s IoT push, from RedCap to the stars

AT&T’s IoT Network Intelligence launch should bolster the carrier expanding network capabilities, including its IoT-focused 5G reduced capacity (RedCap) network recently topping more than 200 million potential customers covered.

Jason Sikes, VP of device technology at AT&T, explained in a blog post that the carrier’s RedCap network is targeted at devices with a “streamlined subset of 5G capabilities tailored for IoT and wearables.” These devices “have less battery consumption, lower costs, and lower bandwidth requirements.”

“They offer reduced manufacturing costs and more compact form factors by featuring fewer antennas, lower processing power, less battery consumption, and simplified radio frequency components compared to full 5G devices,” Sikes added.

These device types are being targeted at IoT products for health care, asset tracking, industrial sensors, fleet management, and mid-speed computing devices. A Franklin Wirleess mobile hot spot device is the first commercial 5G RedCap product approved by AT&T for its network, though Sikes added that the carrier is also working on certification with a handful of module providers, including Semtech, Telit Cinterion, and Rhino Mobility.

The RedCap specification was released as part of the 3GPP Release 17 5G specification, which means it’s interoperable with 5G networks. It was basically designed as the 5G version of the narrowband-IoT or LTE-M specifications used in 4G LTE.

The RedCap specification itself limits spectrum use to 20 megahertz for sub-6 GHz bands and 100 megahertz for millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum. This allows for simpler and smaller antenna designs with one transmitter and one or two receivers, unlike the more complex multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna designs required for full-feature 5G new radio (NR) devices like smartphones. This allows RedCap to reduce power requirements and makes it more applicable to edge devices that are often power constrained.

ABI Research has predicted 80 million RedCap modules will be shipped into the market over the next several years, with most of that growth driven by a new RedCap iteration.

The research firm noted that the 5G RedCap specification and market potential has drawn interest from chipmakers like Qualcomm, MediaTek, UNISOC, and ASR Microelectronics. These firms have been drawn to the flame that RedCap will provide a long runway in supporting low-power 5G use cases serving IoT and edge deployments.

“5G RedCap is a series of network and device optimizations that strips back device complexity, acting as a natural successor to LTE Cat-4 and LTE Cat-6,” ABI Research analyst Jonathan Budd wrote. “It is a means of providing an affordable pathway to 5G for IoT device OEMs that do not require the full spectrum of 5G capabilities. The mid-tier LTE Categories have proven valuable in connecting IoT devices; RedCap delivers LTE-equivalent throughput performance, with assurance of network longevity into the 5G era.”

ABI noted that the next RedCap iteration, dubbed enhanced RedCap (eRedCap), will further reduce power requirements and goose adoption. This will allow eRedCap to tap into the already established field of low-powered 4G LTE use cases and account for 71% of the overall RedCap module market through 2029.

“As a replacement for LTE Cat-1 and Cat-1bis, eRedCap will be widely applicable in connecting devices across the IoT application landscape, and chipset and module manufacturers will seek to attain customer loyalty as early as possible,” Budd added.

AT&T CEO John Stankey also recently touted satellite connectivity as being a perfect IoT connectivity vehicle.

“There's some places where, if I was in the IoT space, that satellite might do a better job of picking up certain types of traffic at certain times than a terrestrial network will over time,” Stankey said during a recent investor conference. “And so I think in the IoT space, it's going to open up, probably growth and opportunity for perpetual connection in some places where maybe it does a better job. And the global nature of satellite, when you have assets that move all over the globe, like container ships and things like that, it might be a better way for certain things to get done.”

That aligned with an ABI Research report that predicted the direct-to-cellular market will generate $11.6 billion in revenues by 2030, with the IoT space itself generating $4 billion in revenues. More broadly, the analyst firm sees nearly $125 billion in revenue opportunities for the space by 2030, citing market opportunities like IoT, backhaul, commercial broadband, and mobile satellite services.