NB-IoT and LTE-MTC Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global

Ecosystem and Market


Status

Report based on intelligence gathered as part of GSA’s


ongoing industry research programme

September 2019

©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association 1


Introduction
Continued mobile industry commitment to the range of 3GPP-standards-based
Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies has been characterised by the
dramatic growth in the number of networks supporting NB-IoT and LTE-MTC
(LTE-M) networks, and the substantial growth in the number of Cat-NB1 and
Cat-M1 compliant devices, as well as more recently, the release of chipsets
and modules compliant with Rel-14 Cat-NB2. There are:

•• 142 deployed/ launched NB-IoT or LTE-M networks, run by 114


operators.
101 operators
have deployed •• 153 operators actively investing in NB-IoT technology, up from 141 in
or commercially April 2019, of which:
launched NB-IoT
networks •• 101 have deployed/commercially launched NB-IoT networks, up
from 90 in six months.
•• 29 are planning, piloting and/or deploying NB-IoT networks.
•• 23 are evaluating/trialling NB-IoT technology.
•• 65 operators actively investing in LTE-M technology, up from 60 in April,
of which:
•• 41 have deployed/commercially launched LTE-M networks, up from
34
•• 13 are planning, piloting and/or deploying LTE-M networks
41 operators •• 11 are trialling LTE-M technology.
have deployed
Note that a technology is regarded as deployed when it has been installed
or commercially
launched Cat-M1 in the operator’s commercial network, and it is intended to remain in use (a
networks trial or pilot installation might be discontinued). A network is considered to
be commercially launched once it is available at least on a limited basis for
the use of commercial customers.

In terms of IoT equipment, GSA has identified:

•• 303 devices in GAMBoD are identified as supporting either Cat-M1,


Cat-NB1 (NB-IoT) or Cat-NB2; an increase of more than 50% since April
2019. Of these:
•• 230 devices support Cat-NB1 (including known variants); 103 of them
support Cat-NB1 only.

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
•• Seven identified devices support Cat-NB2 (five of which also support
Cat-M1 and six of which also support-Cat NB1).
•• 198 devices support Cat-M1 (including known variants); 72 of them
support Cat-M1 only.
•• 60.4% are modules, 25.4% are asset trackers, and 5.6% are routers,
with data loggers, femtocells, smart-home devices, and smart watches,
USB modems, and vehicle on-board units (OBUs), making up the
balance.
26 commercially
available •• 26 commercially available chipsets supporting either NB-IoT or Cat-M1.
chipsets support The 3GPP IoT technologies NB-IoT and LTE-M are set to become the global
either NB-IoT or
Cat-M1 dominant LPWA technologies that will enable huge IoT market growth.

Major industry initiatives worldwide, in areas like connected and autonomous


vehicles, connected or smart homes, agriculture, robotics, smart industry,
smart cities and smart energy, are exploring the potential of IoT. Companies
are actively working on IoT use cases involving both NB-IoT and LTE-M. We
expect the IoT market to grow rapidly over the next five years and for 3GPP
technologies to account for much of that growth as they continue to develop.

As GSA consistently reports, it is the acceleration of the 3GPP technology


ecosystem that determines the speed of adoption of mobile technologies.
We see momentum building rapidly behind 3GPP-based IoT. 3GPP Release
13, finalised in June 2016, resulted in significant numbers of commercial
service launches and trials and increasing device activity. Both 3GPP Release
14, finalised in June 2017 and Release 15, functionally frozen in March 2019,
continue to enable improvements in networks and devices (see below).

IoT infrastructure, chipsets, modules and devices are now available from a
range of companies: large and small, well-established and start-up.

The increasing size of the 3GPP ecosystem will further drive commercialisation
of IoT, with mobile operators, infrastructure suppliers, chipset and module
manufacturers, device companies and development and testing houses
supporting new services.

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
Technology status
This report covers the 3GPP-standards-based Low Power Wide Area (LPWA)
technologies for LTE. These include:

•• Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) networks


•• LTE-MTC or LTE-eMTC networks, hereafter referred to as LTE-M
networks.
The ultimate objective of the 3GPP’s IoT work has been to deliver specifications
that enable low-cost device implementations with ultra-long battery life, using
techniques for reduced complexity and power consumption, and better support
for use-cases where standard 3G/LTE coverage is poor – such as for meters
and sensors in buildings, basements or in remote locations.

NB-IoT and LTE-M are defined in 3GPP Release 13. NB-IoT can be deployed
within an LTE carrier, or in the guard band of an LTE carrier, or as a stand-
alone carrier in other (non-LTE) spectrum, with a system bandwidth that can
be as narrow as 180 kHz. LTE-M is deployed within an LTE carrier. Two User
Equipment (UE) categories were defined: Cat-NB1 (for NB-IoT networks) and
Cat-M1 (for LTE-M networks). The coverage enhancement modes introduced as
part of LTE-M can also be optionally supported by ordinary LTE UE categories.

3GPP Release 14 was frozen in June 2017, with a variety of enhancements


to the IoT specifications. These included for LTE-M: higher data rate support,
multicast support, improved positioning support (based on the E-CID and
OTDOA capabilities introduced already in Release 13), VoLTE performance
enhancements and mobility enhancements; and for NB-IoT: new positioning
capabilities based on OTDOA and E-CID, multicast support, improved non-
anchor carrier operation, mobility enhancements, reduced power consumption
and latency.

New categories of devices were also set out in the specification: Cat-NB2 and
Cat-M2 devices supporting greater bandwidth and higher peak upstream and
downstream speeds than their Cat-NB1 and Cat-M1 counterparts. Furthermore,
ordinary LTE-M devices that make use of the LTE-M coverage enhancement
modes can use even larger bandwidths and peak rates than Cat-M2.

Release 15 adds new capabilities for NB-IoT including support for TDD and
small cells, extensions to NB-IoT stand-alone mode, several enhancements
designed to reduce power consumption, and improved access control. LTE-M

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
enhancements were introduced by Release 15 that were designed to enable
new use-cases, including support for higher UE velocity, and a lower UE power
class. Other LTE-M enhancements covered lower latency, reduced UE power
consumption, increased spectral efficiency and improved access control. In
general, new LTE-M improvements are applicable across all duplex modes
(FDD, TDD and HD-FDD) and can be supported by both Cat-M1 and Cat-M2
devices as well as by ordinary LTE devices that implement support for LTE-M
coverage enhancement modes.

Release 16 is targeted for completion in March 2020, and includes:

•• for LTE-M networks: work items looking at improved downlink (DL)


and uplink (UL) transmission efficiency and/or UE power consumption,
scheduling enhancements, extreme coverage for ordinary LTE UE,
stand-alone deployment, further mobility enhancements, improved
co-existence with New Radio (NR) and support for connection to the 5G
core network.
•• for NB-IoT networks: work items looking at improved DL and UL
transmission efficiency and/or UE power consumption, scheduling
enhancements, network management tool enhancement, improved
multi-carrier operation, further mobility enhancements, improved co-
existence with NR and support for connection to the 5G core network.

Live and planned IoT networks


The number of deployed/launched networks has continued to grow. GSA has
114 operators identified 114 operators in 57 countries that have deployed/launched at least
in 57 countries one of the NB-IoT or LTE-M technologies. Of those, 26 operators have deployed/
have deployed/ launched both NB-IoT and LTE-M.
launched at
least one of the •• 27 countries have deployed/launched NB-IoT and LTE-M networks
NB-IoT or LTE-M
technologies •• 28 countries have deployed/launched NB-IoT networks only
•• Two countries have deployed/launched LTE-M networks only.

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
Figure 1: Map of countries with deployed/launched NB-IoT and LTE-M networks

NB-IoT launches, plans and trials

In total, 153 operators in 72 countries are known to be actively investing in


NB-IoT networks. Of these, 101 operators in 55 countries have deployed or
153 operators in launched NB-IoT networks, up from 90 operators in April 2019. Twenty-nine
72 countries are more operators are planning or deploying NB-IoT networks and a further 23
investing in NB-
operators are trialling NB-IoT technology.
IoT networks
Figure 2: NB-IoT investment status by country

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
LTE-M launches, plans and trials

GSA has identified 65 operators in 38 countries that are actively investing


in LTE-M networks. Of these, 41 operators in 29 countries have deployed/
65 operators in commercially launched; 13 more operators are planning or deploying networks
38 countries are
actively investing and 11 are known to have been engaging in tests or trials.
in LTE-M Figure 3: LTE-M investment status by country
networks

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
Chipsets
The number of system-on-chip (SoC) and chipsets released for Cat-NB1/NB2
and Cat-M1 has grown quickly. GSA has identified 32 modem chipsets/SoCs/
platforms supporting Cat-1, Cat-M1, Cat-NB1 or NB2, or both. Of these, 26 of
these support Cat-M1, Cat-NB1 or NB2. Of these, 12 support Cat-NB1/NB2
and Cat-M1.
Figure 4: Numbers of chipsets supporting 3GPP IoT standards, with percentage of total (32)

Lists of chipsets supporting Cat-1, Cat-NB1, Cat-NB2 and Cat-M1 are available
in GSA’s report: LTE, 5G and 3GPP IoT Chipsets: Status Update, published on the
GSA website in July 2019.

Devices
The 3GPP-compliant LPWA device ecosystem has grown too. GSA has identified
303 devices supporting either Cat-NB1/NB-2 or Cat-M1 – more than 50%
greater than in April 2019. The full list of modules and devices is available to
303 devices
support either subscribers in GSA’s GAMBoD database.
Cat-NB1/NB2 or
Cat-M1, or both In total, 230 devices have been released supporting Cat-NB1 (including known
variants); 103 of them support Cat-NB1 only. In total, 198 devices have been
released supporting Cat-M1 (including known variants); 72 of them support
Cat-M1 only.

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
Figure 5: Cat-NB1, Cat-NB2 and Cat-M1 devices by form factor (total: 303)

Over 60% of
all devices
supporting
NB-IoT and
Cat-M1 are
modules

The rapid rise in the number of devices supporting Cat-NB1, Cat-NB2 and
Cat-M1 is in step with the number of operators and countries that are deploying
cellular IoT networks and suggests growing momentum in the ecosystem. GSA
will continue to track this market, with device data in its GAMBoD database
updated regularly, and with regularly published statistics on the launch of NB-
IoT and LTE-M networks drawn from its Networks, Technologies and Spectrum
(NTS) database.

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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©Copyright 2019 Global mobile Suppliers Association
About GSA
GSA reports are compiled from data stored in the GSA Analyser for Mobile
Broadband Devices/Data (GAMBoD) database, which is a GSA Member and
Associate benefit. For more information on accessing the GSA GAMBoD database
please contact GSA at [email protected]

GSA (the Global mobile Suppliers Association) is a not-for-profit industry


organisation representing companies across the worldwide mobile ecosystem
engaged in the supply of infrastructure, semiconductors, test equipment,
devices, applications and mobile support services.

GSA actively promotes the 3GPP technology road-map – 3G, 4G, 5G – and
is a single source of information resource for industry reports and market
intelligence. GSA Members drive the GSA agenda and define the communications
and development strategy for the Association.

Membership of GSA is open to any supplier of products; systems or services


related to the mobile industry and brings many benefits including access to
the GAMBoD and NTS database. The range of benefits includes enhanced
discussion, networking and influencing opportunities on the key industry
topics, and unique promotional/visibility opportunities for your company name,
capabilities, positioning and messages. More details can be found at https://
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(the Global mobile Suppliers Association).

Contact
GSA Secretariat

Email: [email protected] | Tel: +44 330 113 1572 | https://gsacom.com

GSA Report | September 2019 | NB-IoT and LTE-M: Global Ecosystem and Market Status

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