300 Emerging Cellular IoT Projects Worldwide - 2nd Edition

Database Details 300 Emerging Cellular IoT Deployments Worldwide

The analyst has compiled a list of 300 emerging cellular IoT projects worldwide. The information included about each of these is mainly the company name and location, project name and type, website address, IoT vertical and the number of connections by region (including 5-year forecasts). These 300 projects consist of a mix of both start-ups and more incumbent projects and represented together 4.8 million subscriptions at the end of 2021. The list is delivered in Excel format.

Highlights from the database:

• Detailed data in Excel format on 300 emerging M2M/IoT deployments identified globally.
• Practical information including the involved companies, HQ location and website for every deployment.
• Categorisation of each project by the main M2M/IoT vertical.
• Geographical breakdown detailing the number of active cellular IoT connections by region per project.
• Forecasts on the future developments for each deployment until 2026.
• Analyst commentary on the methodology and summary of key findings as well as select case studies.

This product answers the following questions:

• Which are notable emerging M2M/IoT projects deployed on the global market?
• What is the geographical breakdown of key M2M/IoT deployments by region? 
• Which projects are expected to experience the highest growth rates in the next five years?
• Which of the M2M/IoT verticals have the greatest numbers of emerging deployments? 
• How will the list develop in the future as the constituent deployments progress?

The Year 2021 was a Breakout Year for the Cellular IoT Module Industry

According to this report, annual shipments of cellular IoT modules increased by 39 percent in 2021 to reach 428 million units. Annual revenues grew faster at 54 percent to reach US$ 5.3 billion, reflecting strong customer demand in a constrained supply environment. Even though the supply shortage likely has caused some inventory build-ups, several vendors have reported continued strong growth in the first quarter of 2022, suggesting that short-term demand remains robust.

The results of the latest cellular IoT module vendor market share assessment show that the five largest cellular module vendors, including Quectel, Fibocom, Sunsea AIoT, Thales and Telit, hold 68 percent of the market in terms of revenues. Overall, the year 2021 was a record year for the cellular IoT module industry, in which all major vendors achieved double-digit growth. China-based vendors continue to outgrow the market, in part due to the significant growth in the domestic IoT market, which now accounts for more than 55 percent of global cellular module demand.

4G LTE is the dominant technology as LTE Cat-1, NB-IoT and LTE-M replace 2G and 3G technologies in the low to mid market segments. LTE Cat-1 module shipments close to tripled in the year, driven by strong uptake in China, where chipsets from domestic suppliers supporting the single antenna version LTE Cat-1 bis are roughly half the price compared to standard LTE Cat-1 platforms. Adoption of LTE Cat-1 in the country comes somewhat at the expense of NB-IoT shipments that recorded slowing growth year-on-year. Similar to the previous year, NB-IoT module shipments were largely confined to China. Internationally, NB-IoT module shipments are in the single-digit millions with demand primarily driven by smart gas meter and smart water meter deployments.

LTE Cat-1 modules also account for a major share of the volume in North America, Europe and parts of the Asia-Pacific region, though LTE-M is viewed as an increasingly attractive alternative for IoT devices with stricter requirements on power consumption and long lifecycle. As both LTE-M and NB-IoT are 5G-ready, they are suitable for IoT devices that will stay in the field for more than 10 years, which may prove critical as mobile operators in advanced markets will start to sunset their 4G LTE networks near the end of the decade. LTE-M module shipments today far exceeds NB-IoT shipments outside of China. The ability to perform over-the-air software upgrades of LTE-M devices has proven to be the key factor for the technology’s success compared to NB-IoT.

5G NR module shipments are starting to take off across product categories such as connected cars and IoT gateways. 3GPP’s latest Release 17 introduced 5G NR support for reduced capability (RedCap) devices, expanding 5G NR to less complex IoT devices for higher-end applications that require faster speeds compared to LTE-M or NB-IoT. The technology will function as a replacement for LTE Cat-4 and LTE Cat-6 devices such as wearables, telematics gateways, industrial meters and alarm panels. Enhanced RedCap (eRedCap) that is part of 3GPP Release 18 will offer improved energy efficiency and provide a migration path for LTE Cat-1 designs.

Who should read this report? 

300 Emerging Cellular IoT Projects Worldwide is a unique source of information about emerging M2M/IoT projects identified by the analyst as part of the company’s world-class market research in the space. Whether you are a telecom operator, platform provider, hardware manufacturer, investor, consultant, or government agency, you will gain valuable insights from our in-depth research.