NR+: The Non-Cellular 5G Standard Powering Massive IoT

When most people think of 5G, they think of cellular networks. Yet from its inception, 5G was never meant to be just a cellular upgrade. In reality, 5G was designed around a confluence of requirements and technologies for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), and massive machine-type communication (mMTC).

Cellular technology has successfully delivered on the first two ( i.e., broadband speed and low latency) through LTE-M, NB-IoT, and 5G New Radio. But LTE-M and NB-IoT only address the mMTC side of the 5G vision and don’t meet the requirements of URLLC. Current 5G cellular systems cover eMBB and URLLC, but the industry still lacks a single technology that can satisfy both mMTC and URLLC in the same deployment. NR+ fills that gap with a 5G approved technology that supports massive device density and low-latency operation together.

That’s why NR+ (New Radio Plus) is so promising! Formally standardized by ETSI as DECT-2020 NR and recognized by the ITU as part of the 5G family, NR+ is the world’s first non-cellular, non-operator 5G standard. It delivers URLLC-class performance with sub-millisecond PHY-layer latency and mMTC-class scalability of more than one million devices per square kilometer.

Designed specifically for massive IoT and private networks, NR+ provides the missing piece of the 5G vision.

What is NR+ and Why It Matters?

NR+ was developed to address the mMTC use case of connecting huge numbers of devices that each transmit small amounts of data. It is built on a clean, globally harmonized 1.9 GHz DECT band, a slice of spectrum often referred to as the “golden frequency.” 

Whereas cellular deployments incur ongoing operator fees for data services, NR+ operates in a coordinated DECT band with no recurring connectivity costs. The annual DECT Forum membership remains similar to what companies already pay for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth alliances, but unlike those shared unlicensed bands, the DECT spectrum provides a clean, globally harmonized channel reserved specifically for NR+ technology.

Technically, NR+ inherits the best of cellular radio design without the baggage of operator dependencies. It uses an OFDM/HARQ physical layer, supports native IPv6 networking, and achieves throughputs in the 1 to 5 Mbps range depending on implementation and revision. Current deployments achieve ~1 ms latency between radio links and multi-kilometer range per hop under line-of-sight conditions. Because the network forms a mesh, each hop extends coverage even further for city- or campus-wide deployments.

Nordic and the Radio

At the hardware level, Nordic supports NR+ with the nRF91x1 System-in-Package (SiP) family, which offers terrestrial cellular (LTE-M/NB-IoT), non-terrestrial (satellite), and NR+ technologies. With access to multiple radio domains in one package, developers can design a single platform that supports public, private, and even satellite networks.

The initial nRF91x1 portfolio features 1 MB Flash and 256 kB RAM along with integrated security elements and advanced power management for battery-sensitive IoT applications. Nordic provides the NR+ PHY-level implementation, along with firmware and development tools through its nRF Connect SDK.

Importantly, firmware engineers can reconfigure the same nRF91x1 hardware to operate in LTE-M, NB-IoT, satellite, or NR+ mode. In that way, device manufacturers can leverage a single design and bill of materials for all deployment models (e.g., operator networks, private 5G NR+ installations, or hybrid systems that combine both). While the current nRF91-series does not yet support simultaneous operation across NR+, satellite, and cellular modes, the shared hardware platform allows manufacturers to select the desired mode at production or deployment. Nordic thus reduces SKU count and gives developers a stable and scalable hardware basis for emerging non-cellular 5G ecosystems.

Wirepas and the Network Intelligence

If Nordic provides the voice, Wirepas supplies the network intelligence. Wirepas’ Mesh software brings its proven low-power mesh technology to the new NR+ radio layer. Together, this pairing helps devices to become part of a self-organizing, self-healing, and dynamically load-balancing network proven to connect up to millions of nodes within a single domain.

Whereas traditional topologies depend on a single gateway or coordinator, NR+ and Wirepas networks give customers freedom to deploy any number of gateways, and each device selects the gateway that best fits its immediate environmental conditions. Each node continuously evaluates its local radio environment and selects the most efficient parent connection based on current conditions. If a gateway or node fails, nearby devices instantly reroute to maintain continuous operation with no centralized control or routing tables.

Multi-gateway redundancy guarantees reliability with minimal maintenance overhead. Each device is aware of its own conditions and can make local decisions to overcome interference or congestion. Such behavior is difficult for infrastructure-dictated systems in large, heterogeneous environments. With this unprecedented capability, operators can deliver networks that configure and repair themselves without human intervention.

From a business standpoint, Wirepas also keeps total cost of ownership low; they require no operators and no recurring spectrum fees. Combined with Nordic’s hardware, Wirepas’ decentralized network brain makes large-scale private IoT deployments practical and economically viable.

Spectrum and Performance

One of NR+’s biggest technical advantages lies in its spectrum. The 1.9 GHz DECT band is globally harmonized and reserved exclusively for DECT and NR+ operations. Compared to the overcrowded 2.4 GHz ISM band used by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, or the fragmented sub-GHz allocations that vary by region, the 1.9 GHz band offers a clean, interference-free environment across nearly all markets.

This “golden frequency” allows NR+ to support high transmit power and low interference with remarkable range. Field measurements have demonstrated 6.2 km of rooftop-to-rooftop, line-of-sight connectivity in a small town, and longer line-of-sight links of up to 15 km in rural open-terrain testing. Even in dense urban environments, NR+ can achieve hundreds of meters of reliable coverage.

NR+ supports multiple topologies (e.g., mesh, star, point-to-point, and hybrid), meaning developers have flexibility for different deployment needs. It also offers a symmetrical uplink and downlink structure that simplifies hardware design and unlocks cost-effective bidirectional communication.

Why NR+ Is Different from Other IoT Options?

To appreciate NR+’s uniqueness, it helps to contrast it with existing IoT networking technologies.

Wi-Fi and Zigbee need centralized controllers and shared 2.4 GHz channels, which suffer from interference, short range, limited bandwidth, and lack of scalability. They work well for smaller local networks but quickly become unmanageable as node counts rise. Bluetooth Mesh, while decentralized, requires frequent message retransmissions that drain batteries and congest the airwaves.

Cellular IoT technologies such as LTE-M and NB-IoT excel in wide-area coverage but depend on operator infrastructure, licensed spectrum, and recurring fees. These dependencies make cellular IoT impractical for large-scale private deployments.

By contrast, NR+ offers the best of all worlds. It delivers long-range, consistent bandwidth, and high scalability in a self-managed and battery-efficient network that operates on globally available spectrum. While today’s commercial mesh stacks focus on mains-powered devices, the underlying NR+ PHY still supports low-power operation. Nordic and Wirepas are both developing battery-operated use cases that will mature with the ecosystem. 

Each NR+ node can sense its local conditions and adjust its frequency, power, or routing accordingly. Centralized networks simply can’t achieve this level of adaptive behavior. Such autonomy unlocks large, distributed deployments without complex coordination or manual tuning.

For engineers, this translates to easier deployment and maintenance. For businesses, it means decreased operational costs and higher resilience.

Conclusion

5G has always been more than cellular, and NR+ proves it. By addressing the mMTC pillar of the 5G vision, NR+ unlocks massive, low-cost, and operator-free connectivity that cellular networks were never designed to deliver. It overcomes the interference challenges of 2.4 GHz systems and the regional fragmentation of sub-GHz deployments, providing a globally consistent foundation for industrial and utility IoT.

Together, Nordic Semiconductor and Wirepas are making NR+ both practical and accessible. Nordic’s nRF91x1 platform delivers the radio flexibility and developer ecosystem to support cellular, satellite, and NR+ modes from a single hardware base, while Wirepas’ 5G Mesh SDK adds intelligence, self-healing, and scalability.

For engineers and organizations looking to build private, resilient, and future-proof IoT networks, NR+ offers a clear path forward that's available today. Learn more at the Nordic Semiconductor booth at CES 2026.