Several of the world’s leading mobile operators, including AT&T, China Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, have launched commercial rollouts of low power wide area (LPWA) networks, with the GSMA claiming its Mobile IoT Initiative has been a success.
The list of operators includes AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Verizon and Vodafone.
The rollout programme is part of the GSMA Mobile IoT Initiative that encourages the market to take on licenced LPWA networks. In China, several key cities have seen the launch of NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) by China Mobile and China Unicom, whereas China Telecom deployed NB-IoT networks across the country. Vodafone introduced the NB-IoT in Spain and the Netherlands, with DT launching the technology in multiple German cities along with nationwide rollout in the Netherlands, while AT&T and Verizon have previously announced nationwide launches of LTE-M technology.
“It is clear that the market sees the benefit of adopting solutions that offers flexibility, security, lower costs, and cover all use cases, and we look forward to seeing other operators follow in the near future,” said Alex Sinclair, GSMA chief technology officer.
Along with these deployments, the GSMA also announced that its Mobile IoT Innovators programme, which is designed to encourage the development of new LPWA solutions, has reached over 500 members, underscoring the growth of the wider IoT ecosystem.
Gartner says China is at forefront in development of the LPWA market. According to the US-based research company, China is set to be the one to lead the LPWA markets by 2025, accounting for 486 million of the estimated 3.1 billion connections globally. It is also at the forefront in the global development of mobile IoT in terms of both network launches and a record number of ecosystem developer partners.
As part of the GSMA’s Mobile IoT Innovator community, China also leads the development of new innovative solutions based on Mobile IoT technology. Interestingly, among the 546 global companies currently developing new solutions based on Mobile IoT technology, more than 215 are from China alone.
