Alejandro Cadenas, IoT strategy manager, Telefónica:
“Deployment of private networks is giving way to a radical change in industries, especially suited for campus-type industrial deployments like mines, ports, airports or manufacturing plants. Thanks to this connectivity technology, companies will work faster, safer and in a more efficient way.
“Full availability of low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks, including NB-IoT and LTE-M, is a game-changer in industries such as utilities or logistics, thanks to their low battery consumption and wide range connectivity.
“The ecosystem of devices, modules and chipsets is evolving fast; the economies of scale are driving increasing demand for these devices and connectivity technologies. The costs will decrease radically and new use cases will open up.
“This will be the case for consumer IoT products, which is a very sensitive to pricing. That is very clear thanks to products and services such as the connected car, which shows how far IoT extends to the world.
“Every day, consumer IoT devices are getting more affordable, as the scale increases. And they goes way beyond just the connected car, of course – trackers for the elderly, for children, for pets; these are also a reality, as are wearables.
“As well, IoT security is a key 2020 trend. Security is a major concern for companies and for individuals, and the technology around it has evolved significantly – technology to fully secure the IoT solutions is ready.
“Based on the above trends, the number of connected devices and use cases is increasing very fast, and so will the amount of data that is captured from them. In parallel, the value extracted from that data also goes up. Data analytics in big and small data environments becomes very relevant, with applications in predictive maintenance and digital twins, for example.
“Finally, 5G is getting closer. We will see new deployments of 5G networks under controlled environments, that will help companies increase efficiencies and shift their very operating models. Additional enhancements from the network side like edge computing and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies will enable new use cases.”
