All change, 2G terminates there

LTE network migration is sweeping through the top M2M markets and is causing enterprises to rethink their near to medium-term strategies for M2M, says Machina Research, which has just completed a study on the modules market.

New, lower priced LTE modules expected to reach the market in 2014 exhibiting key changes in design, pricing and in the design process necessary for embedding connectivity in products. That will begin to upset the balance of value in the modules industry and force enterprises to rethink their 2/3G to 4G transition timings. The new study, “Global M2M Modules Report: Advancing LTE migration heralds massive change in global M2M modules market” points out that, to date, “the demand for 4G M2M connectivity has been restricted to a select few high bandwidth applications such as emergency response, security video and automobile entertainment.”

But the early adoption of LTE is stimulating the decomissioning of 2G networks (and a refarming of their spectrum) and is therefore accelerating the move to LTE as enterprises work calculate that there won’t be any guarranteed 2G networks left over the lifetime of their modules. The respose is naturally to leap to LTE, especially as it has improved design and pricing.

“Of the global 266.5 million wireless wide area network (WWAN) M2M connections in 2013, 99.5% was comprised of 2G and 3G connections. However, as the initial wave of LTE migration transforms the M2M markets in the US, Japan, South Korea, China and top European markets, the mix of WWAN module technologies will change dramatically in the next 3-5 years,” claims Machina .