Cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) communications will account for at least 10 percent or 974 million of the 10 billion mobile connections by 2020, said GSMA.

Cellular M2M accounts for about three percent of global mobile connections today.

At the current rate of trajectory, cellular M2M connections will grow at 26 per cent per year (CAGR) between 2014 and 2020. This growth rate could accelerate beyond 40 percent a year if desirable market conditions are achieved, leading to the potential two billion cellular M2M connections by 2020.

Possible growth stimulators include the introduction of additional government policies aimed at encouraging wider deployment of cellular M2M in key sectors such as utilities, smart cities, automotive and healthcare; reductions in M2M module costs; and the development of standardised APIs.

China and the US will account for approximately half of the global total. China’s large cellular M2M market is attributed to significant investment by the government, underlining the important role of regulatory initiatives in stimulating M2M growth.

The US market is being driven by strong growth in the automotive, smart homes and utilities sectors in particular.

Ccellular M2M connections are expected to account for around 27 percent of mobile connections in North America by 2020 from approximately one in 10 connections currently.

Last month, Berg Insight said the share of cellular M2M devices connected to HSPA / LTE networks is projected to more than double from less than 20 percent in 2014 to more than 50 percent by 2018.

When it comes to device shipments, 3G/4G is expected to overtake 2G already in 2017. HSPA will be the largest technology in an intermittent period until the current price gap to LTE has been closed, said Berg Insight.

Baburajan K
[email protected]