Cellular Technologies Will Play A Leading Role Advancing The Internet of Things

Cellular technologies are vital to the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), according to a recent global survey of commercial service providers, commissioned by InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDCC), a wireless technology research and development company.  The study, conducted by Heavy Reading, found that evolving cellular standards and technologies, especially LTE-M, 5G and NB-IoT, were rated by CSPs as the most important in driving IoT’s long-term opportunity and growth.

A Nov. 14 webinar, Cellular IoT:  A Consensus Around Leadership Emerging, will discuss the drivers behind the findings and what it means for the future of IoT.  A new white paper, IoT in a 4G/5G World, takes a closer look at how CSPs are preparing to take advantage of 5G to deliver extensive machine-type communications (mMTC) and low-latency mission-critical services, considered to be key components of the evolving IoT.

While both large and small CSPs worldwide see IoT as a nascent technology and industry, there are regional differences in how CSPs are approaching new revenue-generating opportunities.  The results of the survey showed that:

• Transport and logistics ranked as the top vertical opportunity in Asia and Europe and captured the second spot, behind healthcare, in the U.S.
• Between 2018 and 2020, the vertical industry focus is expected to shift to industrial IoT, followed by healthcare and consumer IoT.  Europe is the outlier, as transport and logistics are expected to comprise the most important market there through 2020, with consumer IoT not even in the top three.
• Security is one thing everyone agrees on.  Overall and across all regions, security is the number one functionality that CSPs consider important for their IoT strategy.

“While various IoT access technologies perform for specific use cases, it’s clear that cellular will play a critical role, especially for high-value IoT applications,” said Mike Jeronis, Vice President, Product Development, Chordant.  “The more complex mobile applications such as connected cars, drones and robotics, which are poised to take off in the next four to five years, will require the ubiquity, low-latency and reliability being built into the evolving 5G standards today.” – Globe Newswire