It seems that pretty much everyone is getting in on the IoT Game these days. There is a plethora of IoT boards, devices, sensors and other accessories on the market. The new AT&T IoT Starter Kit is one of the latest endeavors into IoT and this time from a telecom instead of just yet another manufacturer. This seems to be a play from AT&T to get you to use their cellular service specifically for your next IoT solution.

AT&T IoT Starter Kit

The AT&T IoT Starter Kit is a development platform designed to aid in the IoT prototyping process. It even come with a few AT&T services at no additional cost once purchasing the kit:

300 SMS for use over 6 months
300 MB of Data for use over 6 months
Domestic AT&T US and AT&T Mexico, no roaming

Additionally, the AT&T IoT Starter Kit is built with support for 4G LTE wireless connectivity. This kit can be used to build IoT devices that utilize modern cellular connectivity.

The full AT&T IoT Starter Kit costs $99 USD and includes the following:

NXP FRDM-K64F Freedom Board
AT&T LTE SIM
Avnet M14A2A Cellular Shield
2x Pulse LTE antennas
2x Micro USB cables
5V power supply
Quick Start Card

The AT&T IoT Starter Kit include support for integrating with Microsoft Azure IoT Suite. There’s additional documentation available on the AT&T IoT Starter Kit website.

Freedom Board FRDM-K64F Specs

The NXP FRDM-K64F Freedom Board included in the AT&T IoT Starter Kit isn’t proprietary to AT&T and can be purchased separately for approx. $60 USD for the individual board.

The NXP FRDM-K64F Freedom Board has the following specs:

MK64FN1M0VLL12 MCU (120 Mhz ARM Cortex-M4)
1 MB flash memory
256 KB RAM
RGB LED
Dual-role USB interface with Micro USB connector
FXOS8700CQ accelerometer and magnetometer
2x user push buttons
Ethernet

There are other cellular connectivity options to use with other IoT boards, but the AT&T IoT Starter Kit does come with some free cellular SMS and Data usage for development. This is really just yet another option to add to the list of boards and kits to use when deciding what IoT hardware will suite the needs of the next IoT solution.

Happy building!

About the Author

Chris Pietschmann

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.