Twilio said the new platform for T-Mobile’s NB-IoT platform will be available for beta access in early 2019
Cloud communications platform company Twilio has announced the creation of a new developer platform for T-Mobile US’ narrowband internet of things network.
Twilio claimed that the new platform is the first developer platform for NB-IoT in the U.S. Twilio also announced the Twilio Breakout Software Development Kit (SDK) to help developers start taking advantage of the optimizations offered by NB-IoT networks.
“Together with Twilio, the Un-carrier is unleashing developers and building an entirely new ecosystem for IoT solutions” said John Legere, chief executive officer of T-Mobile. “Once again, T-Mobile is at the forefront of innovation, enabling a world where anything and everything can be connected. The possibilities are endless!”
Twilio Narrowband Developer Platform includes narrowband SIMs, the Twilio Narrowband IoT Developer Kit and Twilio Breakout software development kit.
The Narrowband IoT Developer Kit includes an Arduino-based development board and Grove sensors specifically chosen for low-powered wide-area solutions. It also features the u-blox LTE Cat NB1 SARA‑N410 hardware module, which is certified for the T-Mobile NB-IoT network.
Twilio Breakout SDK reduces the complexity of hardware and heterogeneity of different networks, allowing developers to focus on creating their narrowband IoT device deployment, the company said. The Breakout SDK handles tasks such as network registration and intelligently optimizes communication between devices and cloud services based on the network capability requirements across IP, Non-IP and SMS, according to Twilio.
“The introduction of T-Mobile’s Narrowband IoT network provides a tremendous opportunity for developers who are innovating and building new categories of devices that don’t exist today,” said Chetan Chaudhary, general manager and vice president of IoT at Twilio. “By applying Twilio’s approach for cellular IoT connectivity to Narrowband, it will remove barriers so developers can focus on building devices and dreaming up new use cases that don’t yet exist. We can’t wait to see what you build!”
The two companies first teamed up back in 2016 with the launch of developer tools for cellular IoT. Twilio’s Narrowband Developer Platform will be available from Twilio in the U.S. for beta access in early 2019.
T-Mobile US launched its NB-IoT network in July after trialling this technology during 2018. The carrier said that its service is the first NB-IoT network in the U.S. and the first one in the world that leverages guard bands, which are narrow slices of unused spectrum meant to separate frequency ranges and prevent interference.
T-Mo said that it worked with vendors Ericsson, Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies to deploy the NB-IoT network.
