Competition is intensifying in the field of hybrid wireless low power WAN chipsets, as demand for multiple IoT wireless protocols and for reduced electricity consumption grows. Sony Semiconductor Israel, the Sony subsidiary formerly known as Altair Semiconductor, is latest to weigh in with a dual-band low-power cellular IoT chipset combining both the cellular LPWAN variants, LTE-M and NB-IoT, in a single integrated modem. This new ALT1350 chipset also supports satellite connectivity, standard cellular, GNSS, and WiFi positioning, along with an additional transceiver for IEEE 802.15.4-based protocols in sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz ISM bands. IEEE 802.15.4 specifies operation of a low-rate wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN), for use indoors at far shorter range than LPWAN, and being the basis of several established protocols such…