Sequans, a leading manufacturer of IoT wireless chips and modules, has announced a strategic shift towards focusing on 5G technology. However, this change will not affect customers who currently purchase 4G wireless modules from the company.
Sequans has reached an agreement to sell its line of 4G/LTE products to Qualcomm, a major player in the wireless semiconductor industry. As part of the deal, Qualcomm has granted Sequans a perpetual license to continue selling these products. Customers who currently integrate Sequans’ 4G products into their IoT devices can rest assured that they can still purchase these modules from Sequans.
According to a press release, Sequans will retain the rights to utilize the technology through a perpetual license agreement, enabling the company to grow its 4G business and expand its 5G portfolio.
“Sequans will be focusing on 5G moving forward,” stated Olivier Pauzet, EVP Marketing & Strategy for Sequans, in a discussion with EE World. “Our emphasis will be on 5G applications such as fixed-wireless access (FWA) and high-data-rate cameras.”
Pauzet also highlighted RedCap, a component of 5G known as NB-IoT, as an area of interest for Sequans. RedCap, which will receive enhancements in 3GPP Release 18, is aimed at reducing power consumption by utilizing a single antenna for IoT devices. The table below, extracted from an article on RedCap’s role in 5G and IoT, compares RedCap to 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 has also made strides in the RedCap sector, having introduced the X35 5G NR-Light modem in 2023.
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