China’s M2M market looks to be one of the biggest in the emerging Internet of Things, according to a new report from GSMA Intelligence and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). The organizations predict that by 2020, China’s M2M market will have a billion connections.
Right now it’s estimated to have 100 million cellular connections, making it the largest M2M market in the world. Those are expected to increase by 350 million over the forecast period, and will be complemented by another 730 million LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) connections. That latter factor will reflect a broader trend, with GSMA Intelligence and the CAICT forecasting that by the year 2025, half of the world’s 28 billion connected devices will be compatible with LPWA connections.
The GSMA has been working with China’s MNOs to develop LWPA solutions, and their efforts could help the country to become a leader in the IoT and particularly the industrial IoT, given how LPWA networks cater to M2M connections requiring low, long-term power usage and relatively low data levels. Some such solutions are already being shown off at this week’s MWC Shanghai, organized by the GSMA, and it seems fair to expect many more for future editions of the event.
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