The IoT wireless chip and module maker to focus on 5G. No changes to those who purchase 4G wireless modules.
Sequans, a maker of wireless connectivity ICs and modules has agreed to sell its line of 4G/LTE products to wireless semiconductor giant Qualcomm. Under the deal, Qualcomm grants Sequans a perpetual license to sell the products. Engineers who currently design Sequans 4G products into IoT devices may continue to purchase from Sequans.
According to a press release, “Sequans will retain full rights to continue to use the technology commercially, via a perpetual license agreement, supporting the company’s ability to expand its 4G business and develop its 5G portfolio.”
“Sequans will focus on 5G for IoT,” said Olivier Pauzet, EVP Marketing & Strategy for Sequans in a conversation with EE World. “We’re concentrating on 5G for IoT where we see new use cases and devices such as cameras that need higher data rates.”
Part of 5G and known as NB-IoT, RedCap is another area that Pauzet mentioned. As part of 3GPP Release 17, RedCap will get enhancements in Release 18, explained Pauzet. He cited the use of a single antenna for IoT devices as a way of further reducing power consumption. The table below, reprinted from How RedCap fits into 5G and IoT, compares RedCap, high-performance 5G, and mMTC LTE Cat-M.
| High performance 5G | Reduced Capacity 5G | mMTC LTE Cat-M | |
| Bit Rate | Over 1 Gb/sec | About 85 Mb/sec | 1 Mb/sec |
| Bandwidth | 100 MHz | 20 MHz (Rel 18 5 MHz) | 2 MHz to 5 MHz |
| Number of antennas | 2 to 4 | 1 to 2 | 1 |
| Number of layers | 2 to 4 | Typically 1 | 1 |
| Modulation | 256 QAM | 64 QAM | 16 QAM |
Comparison of high-performance 5G, RedCap, and LTE Cat M.
Qualcomm is already in the RedCap business, having released the X35 5G NR-Light modem in 2023.
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