KDDI and Altair Demonstrate Cellular LPWA for IoT

HOD HASHARON, Israel, January 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Altair Semiconductor (altair-semi.com), a leading provider of LTE chipsets, today announced that it has teamed up with Japan's KDDI to demo CAT-M (a.k.a. CAT-M1 or LTE-M), the new Release 13 in conjunction with ultra-low-power consumption, using LTE extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) and power saving mode (PSM) settings. The demonstration took place in Tokyo on December 9, 2016, in the presence of select media and industry executives.

"Cellular LPWA technologies are key enablers for the proliferation of IoT applications and use cases," said Mr. Hiroshi Tsuji, General Manager, Product and Device Technology Department of KDDI. "We at KDDI have a longstanding partnership with Altair, which started with CAT-4, extended to CAT-1 and is now focused on Cellular LPWA technologies. Altair's ultra-low power consumption architecture and early market leadership are very valuable for KDDI in realizing the IoT vision."

"Long battery life is a very important feature for many IoT use cases," said Eran Eshed, Co-founder and VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Altair. "Altair's chipset solutions set the industry benchmark for ultra-low power consumption. We are excited to cooperate with a leading carrier such as KDDI in an effort to commercialize this unique capability for the benefit of users and organizations in Japan and worldwide."

PSM, as specified by 3GPP Release 12, allows devices to connect to the network only as needed, preserving battery life by remaining in sleep mode. Similarly, eDRX functionality, part of the new Release 13 standard, enables further power improvement by allowing IoT devices to remain inactive for long periods, yet remain registered and accessible for network-initiated communication. This reduces the amount of power required and extends battery life significantly.

About Altair Semiconductor 

Altair Semiconductor is a leading provider of single-mode LTE chipsets. Altair's portfolio covers the complete spectrum of cellular 4G market needs, from supercharged video-centric applications all the way to ultra-low power, low cost IoT and M2M. Altair has shipped millions of LTE chipsets to date, commercially deployed on the world's most advanced LTE networks including Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Softbank and KT (Korea Telecom). The company's customer roster includes some of the world's leading OEMs and ODMs, such as Hewlett-Packard, ASUS, D-Link and WNC, as well as the majority of Asian ODMs developing LTE products for global markets. For more information, visit http://www.altair-semi.com. Follow Altair on Twitter: @AltairSemi 

Media/Analyst Contact:
Finn Partners Israel for Altair Semiconductor
Glenn Jasper
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SOURCE Altair Semiconductor