The present disclosure provides apparatuses, systems, methods, and machine readable storage medium for communications in a Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) system in a sub-1 GHz band. In an embodiment, an apparatus for a user equipment (UE) includes a memory interface and a processor. The memory interface is operable to receive a configuration of a frame from a memory, the frame is to be used for communications in a Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) system in a sub-1 GHz band, wherein the frame includes one or more anchor channels and one or more data channels. The processor is operable to encode uplink (UL) communication data for a base station or decode downlink (DL) communication data from the base station based on the configuration of the frame.