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According to Counterpoint Research, over two-thirds of the total cellular IoT connections were in China last year, followed by Europe and North America.


The cellular IoT market has seen remarkable growth amid the difficulties faced by various industries, such as inflation, macroeconomic headwinds and supply chain constraints.

This growth has been fueled by the digital transformation initiatives taken by various industry applications, such as smart metres, automobiles and asset tracking in particular.

"In recent times, 4G Cat 1 bis technology has gained significant popularity over NB-IoT due to its superior performance," said senior research analyst Soumen Mandal.

"5G is still nascent but we expect 5G-based applications to pick up as the module ASP (average selling price) drops to sub-$100 and more 5G RedCap-based solutions become available in the market."

Cellular IoT connectivity has proven important in helping industries to increase productivity, streamline operations, reduce downtime, automate procedures and save money, the report said.

Also, the Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly benefited enterprise IoT players by increasing their efforts to undergo digital transformation.

"Unlike the previous decade, where consumer devices like smartphones and PCs played a significant role in driving cellular connections, this decade will see a shift towards cellular connections being propelled by the digital transformation initiatives undertaken by enterprise IoT players," said research vice president Neil Shah.