u-blox has announced the availability of its SARA-N2 Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) module, which the company claims is the world’s first cellular radio module compliant to the 3GPP Release 13 Narrowband IoT standard. It is designed for use in applications such as smart buildings and cities, utilities metering, white goods, asset tracking and environmental monitoring.
According to the company, it will operate for between 10 and 20 years from a single-cell primary battery. It has a 16mm x 26mm LGA form factor using the company’s nested architecture, and facilitates upgrades from the company’s GSM, HSPA or CDMA modules. It also requires only 200kHz of bandwidth and enables two-way communication and global roaming, among other features.