T-Mobile US announced its pricing strategy for narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) services challenging main rival Verizon.

Based in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile said its price for the narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) will be $6 per year – offering at one tenth the cost of Verizon’s Cat-M plans.

T-Mobile is able to offer cost effective NB-IoT plan to enterprises and homes because the new IoT service is powered by narrowband technology that significantly lowers the costs of connecting things in the IoT market.

T-Mobile, which has a strong 5G strategy in place, said that the IoT plan includes 10 single-packet transactions per hour at up to 64 Kbps, up to 12 MB. Full service payment due at activation; renew after 12 months or 12 MB. T-Mobile said the IoT coverage may not be available in some areas; roaming not available.

The Un-carrier, which always challenges market leaders in AT&T and Verizon with new data offers, was the first wireless company in North America to launch NB-IoT last October and plans to launch the technology nationwide by mid-year. T-Mobile also announced that the company has certified new NB-IoT modules from u-blox and Sierra Wireless for use on its network.

“T-Mobile is taking advantage of the latest IoT technology to make it simpler – and massively more affordable – for businesses and cities to connect things,” said Mike Sievert, chief operating officer for T-Mobile.

Built on the 3GPP standard, NB-IoT is an LTE-Advanced technology. NB-IoT provides a pathway to 5G IoT and offers many comparable benefits like low power usage, long battery life and support for more connections per cell site.

The telecom operator said NB-IoT is much more affordable than Cat-M and is already the globally-preferred standard to power the rapidly expanding world of IoT applications. Because it can operate in guard bands NB-IoT carries data with greater efficiency and performance and doesn’t compete with other data traffic for network resources.

T-Mobile’s NB-IoT plan is available for $6 per year up to 12 MB per connected device. It’s ideal for applications that require low bandwidth, long battery life and large numbers of sensors, like asset tracking, smart city applications, smart agriculture and more.

T-Mobile plans to support the full ecosystem of LTE technologies for IoT to meet the differing needs of customers. The Un-carrier currently offers Cat-1 IoT Access Packs for applications that require more bandwidth and voice, and T-Mobile expects to launch Cat-M nationwide shortly after NB-IoT is available.