The Nordic Semiconductor nRF9160 Development Kit (DK) is a cost-effective hardware development platform providing all necessary tools for evaluation and development of application firmware based on the nRF9160 SiP (System-in-Package). This supports both LTE standards, M1 and NB-IoT, and is globally compatible. The nRF9160 DK is available from Rutronik UK.

The DK includes a LTE antenna that supports bands in 690 to 960 and 1710 to 2200 MHz. It has a dedicated GPS antenna for the nRF9160 version with built-in GPS, a  antenna can be used with Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth Mesh and IEEE 802.15.4 protocols, like Thread or Zigbee®. The nRF52840 SoC (system on a chip) is integrated as board controller and can be used, for example, to build a Bluetooth® Low Energy gateway.

Developers have access to all I/O pins and module interfaces via plug connectors, including an Arduino UNO Rev3 interface. The popular SEGGER J-Link OB is integrated for debugging and programming. It also provides a debug out function.

The DK has both a 4FF SIM card slot and a MFF2 SIM footprint. A preloaded SIM card from iBasis with 10MB of data for LTE-M helps to kick-start developments. Furthermore, the nRF9160 DK has four LEDs, two buttons and two switches that are user-programmable.

Additionally, Nordic offers compatible development tools, including the nRF Connect SDK (Software Development Kit). This extensible framework enables the development of very small applications in highly constrained circumstances and the programming of powerful, richly featured software for advanced applications. The nRF Connect for Cloud is a cloud-based IoT platform for development, test and evaluation of cellular IoT and Bluetooth Low Energy devices. The LTE Link Monitor uses AT commands to monitor the modem/link status and information about the network.