The GSMA has revealed that low-power wide area (LPWA) IoT networks are now available in licensed spectrum in more than 50 markets worldwide.
In a report published at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA revealed that 50 operators have launched 94 services across both LTE-M and NB-IoT technologies. To date there have been 69 NB-IoT launches in 46 markets and 25 LTE-M launches in 19 markets.
In Asia-Pacific, LPWA networks have been launched in Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The GSMA recently launched a new APAC IoT Partnership program to help mobile operators and partners in the region accelerate the adoption of IoT by facilitating the sharing information sharing, promoting regional leadership and providing access to open labs to test new use cases.
“The speed with which these networks have been standardized and deployed around the world is staggering. They are now available in every major IoT market encouraging the development of innovative new products and services across a wide range of sectors,” GSMA CTO Alex Sinclair said.
“The market clearly sees the benefit of solutions in licensed spectrum that offer flexibility, adaptability, security and lower cost. They are also future proofed for the 5G era and will support and co-exist with other 5G technologies.”
Due to the rapid pace of adoption, GSMA Intelligence is predicting that there will be 1.9 billion licensed LPWA connections by 2025.