The NB-IoT market is set to grow from $16.7 million in 2017 to $181.02 million by 2022, according to a Research and Markets global forecast.
Narrow-Band IoT is an industrial grade Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) wireless telecommunication network layer that has been standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and specifically designed for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Demand for the market will be led by the need for long range connectivity and capability of consuming less power among connected devices, such as sensors, according to the report.
The growth represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 61.06 percent over the five-year period.
What’s driving NB-IoT growth?
Unsurprisingly, smart cities and connected vehicles are reported as the lead targets for the NB-IoT market.
The findings reveal that the automotive and transportation sector is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in this period. This is down to greater demand for in-car infotainment, telematics, and navigation systems – all of which will be part of the growing connected car market.
The belief is that NB-IoT can enable real-time collection of data from vehicles, drivers, and road sensors – among other things – in order to do things like the monitoring and streamlining of traffic flows, and ease congestion in cities.
In the Asia-Pacific regions, the growth of smart cities is creating opportunities for the growth of NB-IoT. China and Japan, in particular, are leading the way here. In fact, Chinese company Huawei recently completed the first trial of Narrowband IoT on a live network.
That said, the report expects North America to be the largest market for NB-IoT in 2017. This is down to the regional presence of tech beasts like Qualcomm, Verizon Wireless and AT&T to name a few, which are pushing towards commercialization of NB-IoT connectivity.
While global forecasts such as this are rarely completely accurate, it’s obvious that there is a real appetite for the commercialization of NB-IoT.
Compared with a standard mobile connection, the benefits of a network that offers low-cost deployment and improved battery life for devices are stark.
It will be interesting to see which company wins the race to deliver on this technology, as the rewards will no doubt be great.
Related: 3GPP standardises Narrowband IoT technology for rollout