The mobile operator community is hedging its bets. Clearly, the reuse of existing networks for the IoT is the most attractive option. But there is also the risk of missing out. Therefore many are building out LPWA networks. The GSMA launched an LPWA initiative in August and, in doing so, gave its backing to clean-slate LPWA technologies. But at a 3GPP meeting at the end of September, the decision was reached to standardize a new narrow-band technology operating within LTE spectrum.
The LPWA–cellular battles to come will have echoes of the fight between Wimax and the mobile industry 10 to 15 years ago. Wimax ultimately lost because Wimax operators did not have the muscle to compete with cellular operators. The Wimax community could not convince enough mobile device vendors to support its technology. However, the emergence of Wimax did act as a catalyst for the mobile industry to develop mobile broadband capabilities.
Where the IoT may differ, however, is in the role and influence of the operator. Connectivity will only capture a small percentage of total IoT revenues and in most cases it will be other players in the value chain – the enterprise, the systems integrator, the application developer, or the device vendor – not the operator that decide which connectivity solution to adopt.
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