As connected pet wearables push for smaller designs and longer runtimes, Fibocom has introduced its MQ771-GL LPWA module for smart collars, combining Cat.M and NB-IoT support with power-saving features aimed at extending time between charges.
Smart pet collars sit in a tricky corner of the IoT market: they have many of the same expectations as human wearables—compact industrial design, dependable positioning, and always-on connectivity—without the luxury of frequent charging or generous battery capacity. In practice, the user experience is often defined less by app features than by whether the collar stays connected and lasts long enough to be trusted on a daily basis.
At Embedded World 2026, Fibocom used that reality to frame the launch of the MQ771-GL, a low-power wide-area (LPWA) cellular module positioned for smart pet collar designs. The company is pitching the module around three themes it believes collar makers struggle with most: device size, energy consumption, and global cellular coverage.
LPWA design priorities: size, sleep current, and idle-time efficiency
In its announcement, Fibocom highlighted the MQ771-GL’s “ultra-compact form factor” of 17.7 mm × 15.8 mm, a detail that matters for OEMs trying to fit cellular, GNSS, sensors, antennas, and power management into a collar enclosure without compromising comfort or durability.
Power management is the other headline metric. Fibocom said the module supports power saving mode (PSM) with current “as low as 1 μA,” and it also supports eDRX, which is commonly used in LTE-M and NB-IoT designs to reduce energy use by spacing out paging cycles while maintaining network reachability. The company further claimed “70–90% improvement compared with the previous generation” in PSM current, and suggested that in “real-world scenarios” battery life could be extended “from days to several months,” depending on how the collar is used.
For IoT engineers, those statements point to a familiar set of trade-offs. Longer battery life typically depends on how aggressively an application can sleep, how often it transmits, and what its mobility and coverage conditions look like. Collars that rely heavily on positioning, frequent updates, or continuous sensing can see very different outcomes than designs that transmit only occasionally. Fibocom did not provide application profiles or test methodology, so OEMs will still need to validate performance under their own duty cycles and network assumptions.
Global Cat.M and NB-IoT support, with an eye on roaming scenarios
Connectivity fragmentation remains a practical obstacle for consumer and prosumer tracking devices, especially when products are sold across borders or used while traveling. Fibocom said the MQ771-GL supports “global Cat.M / NB-IoT frequency bands” and “multi-mode network switching” to automatically choose an optimal network in environments ranging from urban areas to remote outdoor settings. The company positioned this as a way to maintain reliable service even when pets move between different coverage conditions.
While the release does not detail carrier certifications, regional SKUs, or roaming arrangements, the emphasis on Cat.M and NB-IoT reflects where many tracking and low-throughput wearables are landing today: LTE-M for mobility-friendly operation where available, and NB-IoT for deep coverage and low power in markets where it is well supported. For product teams, the module’s dual-mode positioning is less about raw bandwidth and more about increasing the number of markets that can be addressed with a single hardware platform—assuming commercial connectivity agreements and regulatory requirements are satisfied.
Fibocom also framed the MQ771-GL around “comprehensive health monitoring and behavior insights,” saying it supports integration of multiple sensors and listing examples such as barking pattern detection, activity frequency monitoring, and transmission of heart rate and respiratory data for sleep-quality analysis and potential early warnings. These are increasingly common feature ambitions in pet tech, but they raise familiar IoT system questions: what processing happens on-device versus in the cloud, how sensor data is filtered to preserve battery, and how developers manage firmware updates and model iteration over the product lifecycle.
Fibocom’s Sunzhi Liu, General Manager of Wireless Communications, described the product’s place in the company’s lineup and its intended market focus.
“MQ771-GL represents a milestone product in our LPWA portfolio. By combining Qualcomm’s advanced chipset capabilities with Fibocom’s extensive communication expertise, we aim to deliver a highly integrated, cost-effective, and high-performance platform for the pet technology market. We look forward to collaborating with more partners to further expand the pet tech ecosystem.”
Sunzhi Liu, General Manager of Wireless Communications at Fibocom
For OEMs and solution providers building pet wearables, the MQ771-GL announcement is less about a new category and more about refinement: squeezing power, footprint, and multi-region connectivity into a module profile that can support mass-market industrial design constraints. The remaining work—device tuning, antenna performance, sensor integration, and service operations—will determine whether “several months” of battery life is achievable in shipping products, but the direction is consistent with where LPWA cellular modules are being pushed for wearables and trackers.
The post Fibocom targets smart pet collars with MQ771-GL LPWA module appeared first on IoT Business News.
