Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS) is a fabless designer, developer and supplier of cellular semiconductor solutions for massive, broadband and critical Internet of Things (IoT) markets.
We offer a comprehensive set of 5G/4G chips and modules that are fully optimized for non-smartphone devices. Massive IoT refers to applications with lower data transmission needs, but where the technology must be extremely optimized in power consumption and cost to enable massive deployment. It covers applications such as smart mobility and logistics, smart cities, e-health and wellness, and smart homes, to name a few.
On the other side, for broadband and critical IoT applications, the technology is optimized to provide to homes, enterprises and industrial sites, the highest possible throughput and the lowest latency. While this requirement is similar to what smartphone requirements, our solutions focus on providing better trade-off in cost and performance optimized for broadband IoT devices such as enterprise routers and home gateways. Our product portfolio is composed of chips, or integrated circuits (IC), of baseband processors and radio frequency (RF) transceivers, as well as machine-to-machine (M2M) modules that incorporate these chips along with the radio front end subsystem, and rich software that includes advanced modem and signal processing code as well as protocol stack and higher-layer applications.
Our goal is to deliver an advanced set of features with technology optimized to meet the IoT requirements of power, cost and size to enable massive IoT, and the requirements of throughput, cost and latency to enable broadband and critical IoT. And for both, to deliver high reliability with advanced security algorithms at a competitive price.
Background
In 2003, Georges Karam and a team of broadband experts from Alcatel and Pacific Broadband founded Sequans as a pure play 4G chip company to address the WiMAX market, where it became the recognized leader by 2011. Sequans went on to deliver three generations of WiMAX technology and then four generations of LTE technology in quick succession, delivering its first LTE chip, Colibri, in 2010. Sequans became known as a leader in LTE for IoT when it developed the first IoT-optimized Category 1 (Cat 1) chipset, Calliope, which quickly took hold in the market as an IoT low cost and low power solution, and today is deployed by leading operators, including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and NTT DoCoMo. In 2013, Sequans began investing in and developing 5G technology, joining the 5G PPP and establishing a 5G research partnership with TCL.
In another industry first, Sequans then introduced the world’s first LTE-M/NB-IoT single chip solution, Monarch, based on the 3GPP Release 13 narrowband standard, published in June of 2016. Because of its leadership position in bringing this newest narrowband LTE technology to market, Sequans powered the very first LTE Cat M1 devices in the market and became a chosen technology partner of some of the world’s leading IoT market leaders, including operators Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, and KDDI, and LTE module makers Gemalto, WNC, Foxconn, Wisol, Asiatelco, USI, Pycom, Fibocom, and technology leaders Skyworks and STMicroelectronics. Monarch is now certified by operators around the world, including USA, Japan, Australia, and Europe.
Sequans recently established distribution partnerships with Digi-Key, Mouser, Avnet, and Richardson RFPD and has begun selling modules and development kits, along with chips, in coordination with these distribution partners. Sequans also recently established partnerships with leading MCU providers, Renesas, Microchip and NXP, and will be introducing joint solutions combining the MCUs of these partners along with the 5G/4G connectivity chips of Sequans in a single solution.
Sequans has been developing 5G since 2013 and has added R&D facilities in Israel, France, and Finland, dedicated to completing development and bringing 5G products to market. The 5G products Sequans has in production now include the Monarch 2 LTE-M/NB-IoT chip and the first module based on this chip, the Monarch 2 GM02S, addressing the massive IoT market; and the coming Taurus 5G chip that will address the broadband and critical IoT markets.
The Management System of Sequans Communications is ISO 9001:2015 Approved.