IoT hardware has entered the market in full force, yet the hardware’s connectivity at the moment is based on the presumption that internet connectivity is ubiquitous. And although it certainly has become more readily available in our online world, the Internet is far from readily accessible everywhere. More than ever, we rely on cellular connectivity. While in our homes and offices we enjoy lightning-fast speed fiber connectivity, once out in our car or on the streets, we enter the wireless connectivity world. A world that we take for granted and accept the compromise for latency and speed to remain connected.
By 2023, Ericsson predicts there will be over 3.5 billion cellular IoT devices on the market. Given the reliance on consistent internet connectivity, it is expected that these devices will not just be shackled to hardline Ethernet but deployable globally. This requires speed and low latency to bring cellular connectivity up to the standards of wired infrastructure. Additionally, the sheer number of IoT devices we are onboarding requires a different approach from the current fourth generation (4G) cellular network that allows data transmission from only 100,000 devices per square kilometer.