The Battle for LPWAN
#askiotworld #1:
Which LPWAN will dominate bigger cake.. SigFox ke… LoRa-Private ke… LoRa-Operator ke.. NB-IoT ke… CAT-M1 ke… RPMA ke… ?
Response:
This battle between the different LPWAN standards will be the main topic of discussion in the coming 1-2 years. It seems each one of them has their advantages due to the different frequency, spectrum, protocol, message sizes, power, etc.
However, normally I will evaluate based on the business factors i.e. business model and whether it’s more proprietary, alliance based or 3GPP.
SigFox is seen coming from a Startup company and quite a “closed” system whereby LoRa is seen as more open. Cat-M1 and NB-IOT are seen coming from 3GPP that are more friendly to mobile operator’s natural evolution path.
RPMA coming from the company Ingenu boasted using a single AP can cover the same area as using 18 LoRa APs or 70 SigFox APs.
I think the fate will happen to the proprietary and alliance type of standards just like WiMAX try to compete with LTE. If they are unable to take that window of opportunity, NB-IOT or Cat-M1 will be the main winner which I believed will have the bigger cake.
They are still some market that will use the proprietary and the ISM band for their own use but not as widely as NB-IOT and Cat-M1.
Unlike the era of 1G, 2G, 3G where the strategy of “Build and the customer will come”, it will not be the same as IoT. Previously, the customers are people/humans but in rolling out LPWAN, it’s more complex because the not all areas have IoT solutions. It’s like chicken and egg – why should a telco deploy when there is no demand for IoT solution?
One of the key factors is the availability of NB-IOT and CAT-M1 devices/nodes. Where are they? Which devices/sensors are equipped with that communication standards? Thus, telcos are reluctant to invest heavily until they are confident that there will be thousands or millions of devices going to get connected. Can anyone promise that?
