How cellular will be key to sorting the IoT standardisation wars

A new study conducted by the GSMA and InterDigital has highlighted some important transitions in the field of IoT that have started to become a reality with everyday deployment of the technology. The report, titled ‘Mobile and the Internet of Things: Unanimity Around Fragmentation, Surprises In Connectivity And Geography’, notes that the various transitions include: the key role of the 3GPP standards-based technology in IoT; expectation that North America will become world leader in IoT; and the current small scale of IoT revenue, along with prospects for rapid growth. The report states that the successful deployment of the IoT will be majorly depended on cellular technologies like 5G, LTE, NB-IoT and GSM. There are six of the top seven connectivity technologies that emerged from 3GPP standards. One third of respondents agreed that by 2023, 5G would likely become the most important connectivity technology for the IoT. Only 4% of respondents considered Wi-Fi as the most important connectivity option for the IoT. Nearly half of respondents believe that IoT accounts for less than 1% of their current revenues, and are expecting it to account for 20% of operator revenues by 2023.