AT&T has launched its first GPS asset tracker on its LTE-M network. Besides location tracking, it also packs in sensors for measuring humidity, temperature, light exposure, and impacts and breakages.
The Asset Tracker One (AT1), which works with AT&T’s Fleet Complete mobile app, is suitable for tracking the position and monitoring the condition of goods in a number of sectors, including transportation, agriculture, food services, pharmaceuticals and emergency services.
In particular, it suggested its value to minimise instances of lost or stolen equipment, to alert when high-value tools are left behind or dislodged, to reveal the integrity of cargo in transit, and to automate agricultural activities such as irrigation with environmental changes.
AT&T noted LTE-M is designed for devices that require low-cost, extended battery life, coverage underground and indoors, and high security. The AT1 features two lithium AA batteries that will last up to five years with “once-a-day use”, said AT&T.
The device fits in the palm of a hand, and can be fixed to assets with screws, ties or tape.
Mobeen Khan, associate vice president for IoT solutions at AT&T, said: “The AT1 is our first tracker designed for the AT&T LTE-M network. It brings the network’s benefits like low cost and longer battery life to a wide range of businesses. It will help our customers save time and money and be more efficient.”
Michigan-based shipping and logistics company TQT is using AT1 to track trailers. Ismar Jakupovic, its safety director, commented: “We never did this before because of the high cost. We had to call the driver and ask. Now we just use the mobile app and we always know where they are.”
AT1 is available in the US as an add-on to AT&T’s Fleet Complete platform, or as a stand-alone product for $8 per month. It’s available from both direct and indirect retail channels.
AT&T wants to go after the broad industrial IoT market with an expanded connectivity portfolio. Its burgeoning LTE-M network, expanding fast, and its forthcoming narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) network, rolling out in the US and Mexico in 2019, will assist enterprises and city functions, including disaster relief.
“We’re just getting started on unlocking the promise of the industrial internet of things for manufacturing, energy, utility, oil and gas, transportation and other industries,” Shiraz Hasan, vice president of IoT solutions at AT&T, told Enterprise IoT Insights in July.
