MWC was unusual for Sequans Communications final yr; it was the week after its proposed $249 million sale to Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics was known as off due to an “antagonistic tax ruling”, and the agency spent the week explaining its place to clients, and reassuring them it was not about to go pop. The intervening interval has hardly been simple for the sector; this yr’s large MWC jamboree was foreshadowed in January by Swiss IoT module maker u-blox’s shock choice to stop mobile IoT. And so, a yr later, Sequans nonetheless finds itself explaining and assuring clients, to an extent. Besides its story is best this time, and the dialog rapidly strikes on.
“Sure, it was tough final yr as a result of Renesas had simply stopped the deal. So we had been telling clients to not fear, that Sequans had a whole lot of capabilities, nonetheless. However sure, we had been in disaster mode, successfully,” says Olivier Pauzet, government vp for advertising and marketing and technique on the French agency, ensconced in a gathering room in the back of its stand in Barcelona – which seems prefer it has seen some motion over the previous three days. What a distinction a yr makes; most notably, a intelligent deal final August with Qualcomm for the sale of its LTE (4G) applied sciences, which licenses Sequans to proceed to innovate and revenue from them, has put Sequans on a firmer footing.
Pauzet explains: “The Qualcomm deal brings two issues: a money profit, which could be very helpful, and robust recognition of our know-how. For anybody that requested if our know-how was any good, this provides the reply. However nobody asks anymore – as a result of an organization like Qualcomm has spent that amount of cash on our know-how. It tells you our know-how is the perfect on the earth.” There isn’t any (official) phrase on the worth of the Qualcomm contract, however the sense is it’s wealthy sufficient for Sequans to place the Renesas funding loss behind it. On prime, Sequans has taken receipt of a €10.9 million grant from the French authorities as a part of its France 2030 initiative.
The aim of the French handout is to help applied sciences “deemed to be strategically vital to the nationwide curiosity” – and up to date geopolitics have elevated Sequans on the European tech scene, as properly. Pauzet feedback: “We begin 2025 with a really sturdy 4G portfolio, with our Monarch 2 and Calliope 2 merchandise (primarily based on 4G/LTE IP now offered to Qualcomm), which proceed to realize traction. All our power is now happening their migration to 5G.” Certainly, the agency teased third-generation variations of each (obtainable for sampling in 2026) at MWC, twinning enhanced RedCap (eRedCap), a lower-power iteration of decreased functionality (RedCap) 5G, with LTE help, as per their forbears.
To be extra exact, the brand new Monarch 3 answer provides eRedCap to the agency’s flagship dual-mode Cat-M/NB-IoT Monarch system; the Calliope 3 answer provides the identical to its Cat-1bis product. As such, they supply an early 5G improve path in silicon for low-power wide-area (LPWA) mobile IoT functions. Sampling in early 2026, with business availability a few yr later (“2027 perhaps, or one thing; it takes 9 months to be designed into merchandise”), would possibly sound like a way-off, however it’s an bold schedule. Stripped-back eRedCap is barely a characteristic in launch 18-level 5G networks, bear in mind, that are nowhere-to-be-seen amongst telco operations, as but.
However Sequans has good type – bear in mind – as a pioneer model within the mobile IoT house. Pauzet is completely satisfied to remind us, anyway. “We had been the primary firm to create WiMAX a very long time in the past; after which WiMAX disappeared, and we targeted on IoT, and had been the primary to launch a Cat-M chipset. And we had been the primary to do Cat-1bis, as properly – and the one one doing it in Europe; the one one that isn’t Chinese language. I imply, Qualcomm is doing it as properly, now – however each of us are utilizing the identical Sequans IP. And we’re placing all of that experience into play now to develop a purpose-built chipset for IoT to work on 5G – which is low energy, low value, very environment friendly, very small, devoted to IoT.”
Simply on these credentials, and for some aggressive context: module maker u-blox, now vanished, had developed its personal Cat-M/NB-IoT chipset, and was later utilizing Qualcomm, amongst others; Sony Semiconductor Israel and Nordic Semiconductor make Cat-M merchandise; ST Microelectronics, an MCU specialist, has an NB-IoT chip play, and nothing else; most of them make stripped again LTE (Cat-1 and better) models, repurposed for IoT. The argument from Sequans is that it occupies a rarefied discipline amongst its European rivals, as a provider of all of the devoted and optimised mobile IoT requirements (NB-IoT, Cat-M/LTE-M, and Cat-1bis), plus it produces the entire stack (silicon to module).
Which supplies it authority within the IoT market, argues Pauzet. Certainly, the discussions at MWC this time are as a lot to map-out the long run, as to re-tell the Sequans story. He says: “Individuals know what we did prior to now, and are asking us what’s going to occur sooner or later – due to the geopolitics, and since the likes of u-blox have left the market; which no one anticipated. Individuals need to know if the identical will occur with this participant and that participant. And so they see that Sequans owns the know-how – the chipset, software program, module – and so it’s right here to remain. And with this cope with Qualcomm, and with this work on 5G, they know we might be right here in 10 years. All of that creates a whole lot of curiosity in us.”
The aborted Renesas episode isn’t with out its upside, too. The pair had developed a 5G-based broadband system-on-chip (SoC) collectively for higher-power IoT functions, below the Taurus model; the first chipset within the sequence, the TaurusLT, was geared to help for RedCap (5G), with a fallback to Cat-4 LTE (4G). It has since been placed on maintain, following the collapse of the cope with Renesas and the shift in technique at Sequans. “The explanation we will go so quick with eRedCap, aside from our DNA, is as a result of we now have good expertise in 5G – due to the work with Renesas on the time of the deal. It means we now have the protocol stack, already, which we’re repurposing for IoT.”
Pauzet provides: “It’s our know-how, and never a part of the Qualcomm deal. The technique is to innovate in 5G, and to be the primary chip firm with a really environment friendly eRedCap answer for IoT – to offer a long-term migration path from 4G to 5G.” It may be famous that its new cash, from Qualcomm and the French authorities, is already being put to work; the corporate acquired Swiss agency Superior Circuit Pursuit (ACP) for an undisclosed charge in January. ACP produces built-in circuits, radio frequency (RF) transceivers, and SoCs for mobile IoT (and 5G broadband) modules. The deal will assist its RedCap improvement, it argues.
Pauzet restates the entire technique: “There are three issues. Firstly, this IoT market wants its personal chipsets, that are purpose-built for low energy and excessive effectivity, to help a tool for 10 years within the discipline. The concept you can reuse a chipset that was developed for one thing else is unsuitable. You want that imaginative and prescient and funding within the silicon layer. Secondly, should you’re solely making modules, then it’ll be laborious – since you don’t personal the know-how. When you have the chipset, as properly, you’re in a greater place. Thirdly, you need to help this 5G roadmap. Migration will occur quick in some markets, and sluggish in others – however it is going to occur, because it has with 2G and 3G, as it is going to with 4G.”
It may be value, right here, addressing the elephant within the room – simply in regards to the enterprise case for purpose-built mobile IoT. As a result of it nonetheless seems like a marginal recreation, and a patchy mess of various community applied sciences, globally; the demise of u-blox within the mobile IoT {hardware} house, most notably, and the choice by AT&T within the airtime enterprise, to shutter its NB-IoT community, have additional unsettled an already rocky market place. NB-IoT, particularly, seems like a parochial concern, at greatest, and a basket case, at worst. Pauzet responds: “Nol, NB-IoT isn’t flying, however there’s nonetheless a enterprise in it. And Cat-M could be very profitable, because the anchor for the entire market.”
He provides: “Cat-M made the market realise mobile IoT can work. However there’s additionally a niche in it, too, which has been crammed by Cat-1bis. The Chinese language will inform you Cat-1bis will rule the world; the Europeans will inform you it’s all Cat-M. We’re extra balanced; we’re the one one doing each. We see a possibility for each. Clients need each, relying on their use circumstances. If you wish to do good metering, and you’ve got Cat-M protection, why would you go along with Cat-1bis? If you wish to do fleet administration throughout Europe, with sure bandwidth, then Cat-1bis is the best way to go. After which, eRedCap brings higher latency and another goodies that solely include 5G.”
Yeah; positively, perhaps. Spectrum effectivity and community simplicity, greater than use circumstances, will drive eRedCap community upgrades in some markets after 2028/28, and eRedCap {hardware} costs will fall a while after that – although to spark speak about huge IoT once more. Within the meantime, there’s a lengthy innovation ramp that Sequans desires to race as much as seize the creativeness and drive the market like – in the best way it all the time has, it says. Definitely, these are brighter days. Pauzet responds: “Yeah, it’s a lot brighter. We’re one of many few mobile IoT corporations that’s actually assured in regards to the future – which is investing massively for our clients, and for the entire market.”
