The hype around 5G and its promise to offer high-speed data for your smartphone has begun with all the latest phones now being 5G enabled; this article explains the technology and what it means, with an emphasis on North America.

The term Internet of Things has evolved to encompass a very broad range of services and solutions; we are now at the point where the word ‘connectivity’ is almost synonymous with the goals of IoT. However, when you think of IoT, you’ll likely revert to an established IoT sector – automotive, retail, and transportation, are key examples. Given the meteoric rise of IoT connectivity to connect everything, even outside of these broad categories, where will the market turn to continue its growth? The answer is System Integrators.

This article aims to predict when the inflection point for mass traction of cellular IoT will occur. It examines:

• How historical telco trends achieved market success
• How those success factors are mirrored with cellular IoT today
• What challenges remain, with an expected timeline towards resolution

With over 14 million cases globally, COVID-19 has caused significant disruption, including delays to the physical rollouts and maintenance of IoT devices and networks owing to travel restrictions and lockdown measures in various countries.

The pandemic initially slowed the manufacturing, distribution and implementation of IoT projects, but also showed the need for the technology. IoT device adoption in supply chain operations will play a role in mitigating future disruption caused by the virus, as well as making processes more efficient to enable IoT rollouts to get back on track.

Covid-19 has clearly marked an inflection point for cellular IoT. As identified in our recent white paper in collaboration with Kaleido Intelligence, the complexity of cellular IoT has been greatly reduced by the GSMA’s standardization of the eSIM.