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Cisco’s Visual Networking Index also plots rise of LPWA connections.
Cisco this week predicted that 4G will account for 34% of global machine-to-machine (M2M) connections by 2020, compared to 10% in 2015.
According to the vendor’s Visual Networking Index (VNI), last year, 3G networks accounted for 46% of the world’s 604 million M2M connections, followed by 2G, which accounted for 40%.
Over the coming five years, Cisco expects the number of M2M connections to increase to 3.1 billion, representing a CAGR of 38% between 2015 and 2020. By then, 2G’s share of connections will have shrunk to just 12%, while 3G will account for 26%.
As mentioned previously, 4G will make up 34% of the total, while low-power, wide-area (LPWA) connections will account for the remaining 28%, as the number of LPWA devices increases from 21.6 million in 2015 to 859 million by 2020.
LPWA "provides high coverage with low power consumption, module, and connectivity costs, thereby creating new M2M use cases for mobile network operators (MNOs) that cellular networks alone could not have addressed," said Cisco, in its VNI report on Wednesday. "Examples include utility meters in residential basements, gas or water meters that do not have [a] power connection, street lights, and pet or personal asset trackers."
These forecasts took on extra significance for Cisco this week because it agreed to acquire M2M platform provider Jasper for US$1.4 billion (€1.26 billion).
Headquartered in California, the company provides connectivity and related services to a number of verticals, such as automotive, logistics, retail, and home automation, among others.
Jasper will form a new division within Cisco called the IoT software business, and will continue to be led by Jasper CEO Jahangir Mohammed. He will report to Rowan Trollope, SVP and general manager of Cisco’s IoT and collaboration technology group. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
