Network Providers Face Challenges in Growing Cellular M2M Market, Says Report

The U.S. cellular machine-to-machine market will exceed 300 million connections by 2022, said a Tuesday ABI report, but major mobile operators face challenges: technologies being positioned as competitive to cellular, growing interest in private network opportunities, and a debate on merits of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. As AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon rush to deploy the latest LTE technologies, new competition is emerging, said the report. Comcast’s support of long-range wireless is a first for a mainstream provider in the U.S. market and a “huge distraction for the top four U.S. mobile operators,” said analyst Kevin McDermott. Comcast is "building on the back of its two main network assets: backhaul infrastructure and successful Wi-Fi hotspot deployments,” said McDermott. Its hot spot program surpassed 16 million, “and they are actively developing an M2M strategy,” McDermott said. Telematics and asset tracking are opportunities for U.S. cellular providers, said McDermott, with coverage and low latency “essential requirements” for the fast-growing segments. In the U.S., connected car applications could benefit U.S. cellular operators “if they don’t get distracted by other technologies,” said McDermott. Of the 82.6 million cellular connected M2M devices at the end of 2016, 68 percent were related to telematics and other transportation applications, said ABI. LTE, including LTE Cat-M and narrow-band IoT, is expected to become the largest network standard for the IoT in the U.S., offering options for data rates, range and node power efficiency, it said.