Juniper Research predicts that global cellular IoT market will reach US$61 billion by 2026; rising from US$31 billion in 2022.
The research firm said that 5G and cellular Low-power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies will be the primary growth drivers of the market accounting for 96% increase of its global value over the next four years.
These are the major takeaways from the new study entitled “Cellular IoT: Strategies, Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2022-2026”, which also predicts that LPWA solutions, such as NB-IoT and LTE-M, will be the fastest-growing cellular IoT technologies over the next four years.
The report said that the low cost of both connectivity and hardware will drive adoption for remote monitoring in key verticals, such as agriculture, smart cities and manufacturing. In turn, LPWA connections are expected to grow 1,200% over the next four years.
2G and 3G network shutdowns to drive LPWA
The report urged operators to migrate IoT connections on legacy networks to networks that support LPWA technologies. It anticipated that demand from enterprises for low-cost monitoring technologies, enabled by LPWA networks, will increase as these legacy networks are shut off over the next four years.
“Operators must educate users on the suitability of LPWA as a replacement technology for legacy networks. However, many IoT networks cannot solely rely on LPWA technologies. More comprehensive technologies, such as 5G, must underpin IoT network architectures and work in tandem with LPWA technologies to maximise the value of IoT services,” said research co-author Charles Bowman.
5G to Generate US$9 Billion for the IoT Market by 2026
Meanwhile, the report predicts that 5G IoT services will generate US$9 billion of revenue by 2026, rising from US$800 million in 2021.
This represents a growth of 1,000% over the next five years as 5G coverage expands and operators benefit from the increased number of 5G IoT connections. To capitalise on this growth, it recommended operators offer value-added services, such as network slicing and edge computing, to IoT users to maximise the value of 5G adoption.
