Embodiments described herein include user equipment (UE), evolved node B (eNB), methods, and systems for narrowband Internet-of-Things (IoT) communications. Some embodiments particularly relate to control channel communications between UE and eNB in narrowband IoT communications. In one embodiment, a UE blind decodes a first control transmission from an evolved node B (eNB) by processing a first physical resource block comprising all subcarriers of the transmission bandwidth and all orthogonal frequency division multiplexed symbols of a first subframe to determine the first control transmission. In various further embodiments, various resource groupings of resource elements are used as part of the control communications.