AT&T says it will launch a narrowband internet of things network across the US and Mexico in 2019. “Adding NB-IoT to our portfolio will expand our LPWA capabilities, help drive investment in our evolution to 5G, and support our customers as they deploy IoT solutions across the US and Mexico,” said Chris Penrose, AT&T’s president of IoT Solutions.
“Adding NB-IoT to our portfolio will expand our LPWA capabilities, help drive investment in our evolution to 5G, and support our customers as they deploy IoT solutions across the US and Mexico.”
“It really spans every industry out there, connected cars is one of our biggest verticals where we’re adding over a million cars every quarter; we’ve got tons going on in healthcare, agriculture, retail, manufacturing, and asset tracking,” Penrose told ZDNet.
“You name it, we’ve got different solutions out there, and I think we’ve really established ourselves as a true global player; that’s one of the things we also like to say, we can make it happen for you anywhere in the world.”
According to Penrose, AT&T sees smart cities as being a big area, with traction happening in four to five areas: Energy, such as smart lighting; water, including leak detection, smart irrigation, and water quality maintenance; transportation, for instance parking and optimising traffic flow; and smart infrastructure, including roads and bridges.
“We’ve got solutions in all of those different areas, where we’re able to bring to the cities these kind of solutions that they can deploy into their cities to be able to address those particular areas,” he said.
As a result, AT&T created a series of spotlight cities across Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Portland,, Montgomery County, Mexico City, and various college campus environments wherein it allowed the cities themselves to choose what they wanted to solve, and then worked with them to meet those needs.
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Global Data–LPWAN deployments lag behind IoT devices, systems:
Deployments of low-power WANs are not meeting expectations despite the explosion in internet of things devices and systems, a GlobalData analysis finds. Demand for 5G wireless connectivity may quickly overtake demand for LP-WAN technology, GlobalData says.
“To be fair, we are still at the beginning of the LPWAN era,” said GlobalData Global IT Managed & Hosted Services Research Director Kathryn Weldon. “But the first rumblings about whether we are seeing traction and monetization are starting to be heard and the reviews are mixed.”
The report noted data from GSMA showed 26 operators across 48 nations conducted build-outs of either Narrowband IoT or LTE-M networks as of April. The majority of those countries — 31 — deployed NB-IoT, although some projects either included both or planned to do so.
At this early stage, Weldon said the industry largely remains optimistic, albeit more realistic about how fast IoT connections will be deployed and how easily they could be monetized. The technology, however, is also up against the clock as operators prepare for the debut of 5G systems.
“If 5G is coming sooner than expected, it may displace LPWANs before they have barely started,” Weldon said.
Author’s Rebuttal:
We strongly disagree with Global Data (Ms Weldon)’s belief that “5G” will overtake LPWANs. Most importantly, only about 8 to 12% of IoT applications will need the low latency that 5G will deliver. The overwhelming majority of IoT applications are low speed, low power, low duty cycle and low cost. They need solid reliability and strong security much more than (5G) low latency or high bandwidth.
Next is the misconception that “5G is coming sooner than expected.” That may be true of wireless carrier’s PROPRIETARY deployments, but not IMT 2020 based 5G which will be the only true 5G standard.
It’s curious why so many pundits think anything coming out of 3GPP is a standard when that (honest) organization says their specs have no official status. 3GPP’s first IMT 2020 submission will be a combination of Release 16 (in development) and 15 (completed) at the July 2019 ITU-R WP 5D meeting.
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Totally agree with your rebuttal comments but I put it at 5 to Atmost 10% of iot applications that will require 5G like
low-latency and or higher bandwidth than LPWANs can deliver