The technology is an optimised variant of 4G LTE and is said to be well-suited for the IoT market because of its low implementation costs, ease of use and power efficiency.
"We believe in building an ecosystem around NB-LTE to speed up the take-up of the internet of things,” said Stephan Litjens, vice president of portfolio strategy and analytics at Nokia Networks.
“This development will bring consumers benefits such as enhanced and improved connectivity of devices, and at lower cost. This is another extension of Nokia's aim to improve people's lives through a programmable world where billions of people, things, sensors and devices are connected.”
Ericsson’s vice president and head of product management, Thomas Noren, said that its collaboration with Intel and Nokia will accelerate IoT growth and ensure a global foundation for a range of new IoT applications for consumers, industry and government.
Intel aims to support the commercial roll-out of the technology with a roadmap for NB-LTE chipsets and product upgrades in 2016, which will add to its LTE portfolio.
"We are excited to collaborate with two leading network vendors Ericsson and Nokia on the next wave of wireless innovation to connect the growing IoT market segment, and to further grow the momentum for Intel's LTE portfolio and roadmap with NB-LTE," said Stefan Wolff, vice president of platform engineering group and general manager of the multi-comms business unit at Intel.
