IoT communication modules that is made with South Korean technology has come out. A global business called Telit Wireless Solution’s Korean Research Institute made an announcement on the 21st that it has commercialized a communication module called ‘Category 1’ for IoT.
South Korean R&D Center had participated even from design step for this module. Telit entered South Korean market after buying Bellwave’s module business sector in 2006. After setting up South Korea as a major base for R&D, it has been working on development and certification of products and providing after services.
South Korean R&D Center is focusing on enhancing this technology by cooperating with 8 Telit R&D Centers in the world. “If a project begins on a global level, research institutes work on designing, developing and testing products.” said Manager Kim Sung-hwan of Telit Research Institute. “South Korean Research Institute’s researchers also had played important roles in developing products.” Products that were influenced by South Korea’s development capabilities will be supplied to global markets through distribution channels of Telit’s Headquarters in North America and Europe.
One can also see Telit’s efforts to invest into South Korea’s R&D environment. When Telit’s Korea Corporate was established, there were total of 40 employees and only 20 R&D researchers. Now there are about 90 R&D researchers, and Telit had hired 40 additional researchers just in last year. “All of South Korean R&D researchers work in development scenes.” said Director Lee Kyung-joon who is in total charge of Telit’s Asia-Pacific Marketing. “Size of South Korean R&D Center is also the biggest in the world.” Not only does this R&D Center is able to test communication, it also has facilities for certification.
Telit set a goal of leading IoT market by combining South Korea’s development capabilities and global marketing abilities. It also focused on the fact that Cat 1-based IoT communication can work in LTE environment without any additional investments in facilities. This proves that IoT market will expand very fast. South Korea’s mobile telecommunication businesses are also playing a part in setting up Cat 1-based IoT environment. “Small and medium businesses can actively participate in IoT businesses in South Korea especially.” said Director Lee. “We are going to support so that small and medium IoT businesses can easily establish communication environment.”
Product that was developed by Telit works through a method that sends and receives small amount of data on low power and is suitable for industrial IoT environments. It is ‘Category 1’ Module that is able to implement IoT service in LTE network. Category 1 is based on network that was set up by 3GPP and its speed of data transmission does not go over 10 Mbps. Instead it is able to maintain communication devices for long time and its cost is inexpensive as power consumption is low. It is mostly used for industrial IoT where data of meter devices are sent and received and for wide construction sites. It is also called ‘IoT’ due to low amount of data.
Telit’s Cat 1 Module will be introduced in South Korean markets during 2nd quarter. At a similar time, products that are combined with IoT service will also be commercialized. Telit is soon to work with South Korea’s mobile telecommunication businesses for certification of products’ network.
Staff Reporter Kwon, Dongjoon | djkwon@etnews.com
