AT&T has launched nationwide 5G RedCap protection throughout the US, focusing on mid-tier IoT use instances with lower-cost, lower-power 5G connectivity, and changing its decommissioned NB-IoT community.
In sum – what to know:
Protection – RedCap covers 200M+ POPs and helps wearables, AR/VR, and IoT sensors.
Units – AT&T leads US RedCap efforts, certifying modules and launching gadgets.
Forecast – Practically 1B RedCap/eRedCap connections are anticipated by 2030, says Omdia.
AT&T claims it has achieved nationwide protection with diminished functionality 5G (5G RedCap) within the US. It mentioned its RedCap setup is “now serving over 200 million factors of presence (POPs) throughout the nation”. It’s working with module makers Semtech, Telit Cinterion, and Rhino Mobility, amongst others, to certify new RedCap modules – to go in 5G-based gadgets with “much less battery consumption, decrease prices, and decrease bandwidth necessities”.
AT&T’s transfer to change on RedCap throughout the US follows its announcement in late 2024 to cease promoting NB-IoT knowledge plans and certifying NB-IoT gadgets, and to to decommission its NB-IoT community within the US totally. The NB-IoT switch-off was scheduled to be accomplished in the course of the first quarter of 2025, and 4G-based LTE-M and, now, 5G-based RedCap have been offered to prospects as different (and higher) applied sciences.
Together with Vodafone within the UK, AT&T is the main provider of mobile IoT to the automotive sector – which depends on larger capability machine connectivity than NB-IoT has usually allowed. In 2022, it was the primary US supplier to hit 100 million IoT connections. It now has round 140 million IoT connections on its community. It has simply licensed a cellular hotspot, the Franklin Wi-fi RG350, as the primary commercially accepted RedCap product on its community.
As context, Launch 17 of the 5G NR commonplace included provision for IoT sensors to hook up with 5G with considerably diminished community – and due to this fact {hardware}, and due to this fact cost-linked – capabilities. This RedCap specification, beforehand ‘NR-Mild’, sits provisionally between low-power IoT (mMTC) and standard-performance broadband (eMBB) within the 5G NR energy hierarchy – and two rungs beneath elite-level essential comms (URLLC) efficiency.
Launch 18 introduces enhanced RedCap (eRedCap) to supply additional diminished capabilities and decrease knowledge fee necessities, which places it in vary of low-power wide-area (LPWA) IoT purposes, as captured in LTE by the mMTC-style pairing of NB-IoT and LTE-M. Omdia predicts RedCap will comply with the trail of RedCap – however “with a slight delay of a yr or two, serving to bridge the hole as industries transition from 4G to 5G applied sciences”, it says.
As of November 2024, 31 operators throughout 22 markets have introduced plans to deploy or are already testing 5G RedCap expertise, in keeping with GSMA Intelligence. These embrace Verizon and T-Cellular within the US. The IoT market will drive demand for RedCap, and even-more for eRedCap – to the tune of just about a billion connections by 2030, says Omdia. The full will surge at a compound annual fee (CAGR) of 66 % within the interval, to succeed in 963.5 million by 2030.
Omdia has been bullish on RedCap for years, going as far as to name it the ”large lacking piece of the 5G IoT puzzle”. Against this with its billion forecast, ABI Analysis mentioned predicted late final yr that complete shipments of RedCap-based IoT modules, which it positions to supply 5G-based alternate options to mid-range 4G-level LTE Cat-4 and LTE Cat-6 items, will prime 80 million over the subsequent 5 years, within the interval to 2029. The ABI determine is for complete annual shipments.
ABI Analysis reckons eRedCap IoT modules will account for 70-odd % of complete RedCap shipments within the interval. For its half, AT&T accomplished the primary RedCap knowledge name within the US within the lab and within the area again in 2023. It mentioned on the time: “LTE-M will proceed to assist LPWA use instances, whereas 5G will assist the excessive complexity use instances. Between these is 5G RedCap, which is able to assist mid-tier IoT use instances… that don’t want commonplace 5G.”
Basically, RedCap is geared as a higher-end IoT connectivity expertise in contrast with NB-IoT and LTE-M, and as a lower-end broadband expertise in comparison with commonplace 5G, as provided to customers. It’s being pitched for wearables and augmented- and virtual-reality (AR and VR) glasses, plus for a variety of IoT sensors and trackers (and “mid-speed computing gadgets”) within the healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, vitality, and automotive sectors.
The forthcoming eRedCap commonplace drops-down lowers connectivity efficiency and {hardware} prices, and opens up 5G to extra conventional low-power IoT instances, nearer to LTE-M ranges. AT&T talked in a weblog put up about increasing its RedCap community and ecosystem. It mentioned: “Prospects can anticipate a rising portfolio of gadgets. This momentum will drive IoT innovation, reworking how companies and customers join, function, and innovate.”
Jason Sikes, vice chairman of machine expertise at AT&T, commented: “RedCap gadgets assist a streamlined subset of 5G capabilities tailor-made for IoT and wearables. They provide diminished manufacturing prices and extra compact kind elements by that includes fewer antennas, decrease processing energy, much less battery consumption, and simplified radio frequency elements in comparison with full 5G gadgets.”
