Inside IoT’s Earliest 5G Use Cases

This white paper, ‘Inside IoT’s Earliest 5G Use Cases’, examines real-life examples of how 5G is being used in six key verticals – including agriculture, automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, media and smart cities – and considers why and when business should use 5G for IoT applications. 

The excitement about the arrival of 5G has mostly been directed at the consumer market place but there are enormous markets in the business-to-business (B2B) arena that will be enabled by the high speed, low latency, and connection density of 5G. To date, though, these are only visible in isolated areas as organizations wait for wider deployment of 5G, learn more about the capabilities and relevance of the technology to their business, and seek out the 5G modules and devices necessary. 

IoT and business applications should not, however, be seen as a minor market for 5G. Analyst firm IoT Analytics estimates that the global base of 5G connected devices, (both IoT and non-IoT) will reach 1.2 billion by 2025, rising from around 11 million devices in 2020. We are therefore at the start of 5G in IoT and this paper sets out the benefits 5G offers, the leading use cases and the main challenges facing wider adoption of the technology. 

ABI Research has recently released its “M2M Cellular Module Vendor Market Share-2019” report, which ranked Quectel as the number one cellular module vendor globally by shipment as well as by revenue. 

“Quectel was early to the 5G market and leveraged its extensive R&D capabilities to accelerate commercialization of 5G IoT use cases and applications. Across all IoT sectors, Quectel has consistently increased its market presence to the point that in 2019 it not only is a leader in global cellular module shipments with 26.4% share but also revenues.” 

Dan Shey, Vice President at ABI Research

Deployment status

The GSA’s Market Snapshot of August 2020 reports that there are now 92 commercial 5G networks operating in 38 countries demonstrating that there is now a large significant base of markets that have 5G coverage available for industries to exploit. In addition, more are set to roll-out 5G shortly, with 392 operators in 126 countries having announced they are investing in 5G at the end of July 2020. 

Cellular industry organization, GSMA, reports that 7% of the world’s population is currently covered and 5G will account for 20% of global connections by 2025. It’s therefore abundantly clear that mobile operators are committed to the technology and businesses are recognizing the benefits of 5G. For operators to sustain their multi-billion dollar investments in 5G infrastructure, IoT business cases will need to start emerging and high-volume use cases are required to justify nationwide coverage. 

To an extent, this is a chicken and egg situation. Without comprehensive, global coverage, 5G IoT applications, especially those involving moving devices, such as track and trace applications, won’t be viable. While, without the revenues associated with a massive and vibrant 5G IoT market, the business case for 5G will be limited. It is, however, clear that operators across the world are committed to rolling out 5G – driven by the consumer market, and the need by operators to be seen at the forefront of innovation and sufficient deployment has already been achieved in the leading countries, with many more countries still to roll-out 5G infrastructure. 

 In this white paper, discover:

• The current deployment status of 5G networks
• The real differences between 4G and 5G
• Why organizations should select 5G for IoT
• The barriers to 5G IoT adoption
• Six real-life use cases that show 5G’s value in IoT