Altair has unveiled its ALT1250, its first LTE Cat-M1 and NB-IoT chipset. It comes as the cellular operators start to deploy the network infrastructure needed to support the low-power cellular protocols that were designed to fight off the like of Sigfox, LoRa, and Ingenu and keep low power wide area (LPWA) networks, for services like smart metering, firmly in the hands of the MNOs. Altair’s co-founder and VP of marketing, Eran Eshed, said the new 1250 sits in a 10mm x 10mm footprint, which includes an integrated GPS receiver, and a wideband RF front end. He says this enables support for any combination of LTE bands – which translates into global support for a single hardware design. The chip is…