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As the EU Cyber Resilience Act pushes security and documentation obligations deeper into the IoT supply chain, Quectel says its module cybersecurity programme is already aligned with CRA requirements, supported by long-running third-party work with Finite State.

For years, IoT security conversations have focused on endpoints and applications. The EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) shifts that centre of gravity upstream, forcing manufacturers to demonstrate that security is designed in, continuously maintained, and backed by evidence. For device makers building connected products on top of embedded modules, that creates a practical question: how much of CRA readiness can be inherited from suppliers, and how much still has to be built in-house?

Quectel Wireless Solutions is positioning its module portfolio as part of that answer. The company said it has a cybersecurity programme in place that supports compliance with the CRA ahead of the 11 September 2026 deadline, pointing to requirements such as security by design, availability of Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs), and vulnerability disclosure and incident reporting.

The announcement is less about a single new product feature than about process and proof. Under the CRA, compliance is not just a security posture; it needs to be demonstrable to regulators and market surveillance bodies through technical documentation and verifiable evidence. In practice, that pushes module vendors to provide structured artefacts that OEMs can incorporate into their own compliance files.

What Quectel is putting on the table

Quectel said it has been working with Finite State, which it describes as a specialist in connected device and software supply chain security, to help ensure its product portfolio is secure and aligned with the CRA and “other industry standards globally.” According to Quectel, the collaboration is designed to support transparency and regulatory alignment for customers integrating its modules into products destined for the European market.

The company’s description of deliverables centres on documentation and testing. Quectel said its modules are delivered “pre-tested and audit-ready,” and supported by security documentation including SBOMs, VEX files, and detailed vulnerability reporting. It also framed the collaboration around three areas: independent security testing, software supply chain visibility, and continuous risk management with monitoring and remediation processes.

“Finite State has been Quectel’s third party cybersecurity firm for over four years, underlining our commitment to module security,”
Willis Yang, Senior Vice President, Quectel Wireless Solutions

The CRA’s lifecycle obligations are a notable pressure point for the module ecosystem. The regulation requires manufacturers to ensure security throughout a product’s lifecycle, including timely updates and effective vulnerability management. That can be challenging in long-lived industrial deployments where hardware stays in the field for many years, while software components and vulnerability expectations evolve continuously.

Why this matters to the IoT supply chain

For IoT OEMs and integrators, the practical value of a “CRA-aligned” module programme will depend on how cleanly supplier artefacts integrate into a broader compliance workflow. SBOMs and VEX files can reduce the burden of mapping what software is inside a shipped product and assessing exposure when new vulnerabilities surface. But they also introduce operational requirements: OEM teams need processes and tools to ingest supplier documentation, correlate it with their own firmware and applications, and produce traceable evidence during audits or incident response.

Connectivity hardware sits at a particularly sensitive junction of the modern device stack. A cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GNSS or satellite-enabled module is not just a radio; it typically includes firmware and a supply chain of software components that can affect risk posture. By highlighting external validation and documentation, Quectel is responding to an emerging procurement reality: security evidence is becoming part of module selection alongside RF performance, certifications, power profiles and lead times.

For connectivity providers and platform players, the direction of travel also changes post-deployment operations. The CRA’s emphasis on vulnerability handling and reporting can force tighter integration between device management, update delivery and security monitoring. Module suppliers that can support OEMs with structured reporting and component transparency may reduce friction when customers need to act quickly on new disclosures.

Quectel’s message is clear: it expects CRA-driven compliance work to ripple across the embedded ecosystem, and it wants customers to view its modules as accompanied by the documentation and third-party validation needed for regulatory scrutiny. With the 2026 deadline approaching, more module makers are likely to talk in similar terms. The differentiator, for IoT buyers, will be how usable the evidence is in real product compliance files—and how well lifecycle commitments hold up once devices are deployed at scale.

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5G fixed wireless access gear is increasingly being asked to do more than deliver broadband, particularly in enterprise sites where location and contextual sensing can unlock new services. Telit Cinterion says it will integrate Airfide Networks’ UWB and 60 GHz radar capabilities into platforms built around its FN990B40 5G sub-6 data card.

As 5G rolls into factories, warehouses and campuses via fixed wireless access (FWA) and enterprise gateways, a familiar problem reappears: connectivity alone rarely solves the operational use cases. Indoor positioning, geofencing and presence sensing often require separate radios, extra sensors and additional integration effort—adding cost and complexity for OEMs, system integrators and operators that want to productise services on top of access infrastructure.

That is the gap Telit Cinterion and Airfide Networks are aiming at with a newly announced partnership. The companies plan to bring Airfide’s localisation and sensing technologies—ultra-wideband (UWB) fine ranging and 60 GHz millimetre-wave radar—into solutions powered by Telit Cinterion’s FN990B40 5G data card.

Telit Cinterion positions the FN990B40 as a next-generation 5G sub-6 data card for broadband connectivity in compact designs, targeting FWA and enterprise gateways, as well as repeater applications. In addition to 5G New Radio (NR) with LTE, the module also supports WCDMA and includes an integrated GNSS receiver, according to the announcement.

Turning FWA hardware into an enterprise services platform

The core idea is to make the 5G gateway or repeater a multipurpose platform: one piece of infrastructure that can connect, locate and sense. Airfide says it integrates UWB and 60 GHz radar into 5G-powered gateways and repeaters, as well as customer premises equipment (CPE), with the stated goal of transforming 5G infrastructure into “intelligent service platforms.”

On the localisation side, the collaboration centres on FiRa-compliant UWB. The companies point to indoor positioning needs in environments such as warehouses and enterprise campuses, and contrast this with Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) approaches that can be constrained by range and device density. In the partnership, UWB functionality is intended to be integrated into FN990B40-powered platforms, allowing OEMs to build geofencing and asset tracking directly into 5G infrastructure—an approach the companies say can reduce system complexity and speed deployment.

Airfide also claims it provides a “full-stack solution,” including reference hardware, software and cloud control. For device makers, that matters less as a marketing phrase than as a practical signal: localisation is rarely just a radio. It typically requires calibration workflows, device onboarding, policy management and operational tooling to make it usable at scale.

Radar sensing aimed at privacy-sensitive indoor use cases

The second pillar is 60 GHz radar, which Airfide says leverages 4 GHz of unlicensed spectrum and uses a four-receiver, three-transmitter architecture. The companies describe this as enabling “sub-centimeter sensing precision” when embedded into FN990B40-based platforms, and they list target applications including occupancy detection, people and object tracking, live health monitoring (including heart rate and pulse), and fall detection for older adult care.

One notable angle in the release is privacy positioning. Because the sensing is described as anonymous and camera-free, Telit Cinterion and Airfide are framing radar as an option for environments where cameras are impractical or unwelcome, such as healthcare facilities and public venues.

The announcement also hints at operator interest: in Japan, operators are said to be evaluating the architecture for 5G repeater deployments, with the implication that sensing and analytics services could be layered on top of coverage infrastructure.

For operators and infrastructure vendors, the broader industry context is a shift in how FWA and enterprise 5G equipment is monetised. As access performance becomes less of a differentiator, vendors are looking for attach services at the edge—capabilities that can be sold as part of a managed offering, rather than as stand-alone devices that enterprises must integrate themselves.

For OEMs, the practical question will be how tightly these capabilities are integrated into the FN990B40-powered designs and what that means for product engineering. If UWB and radar can be packaged into a single gateway or repeater design with a coherent software stack, it could simplify bill of materials decisions and reduce the number of separate subsystems that must be qualified, deployed and maintained over time.

“We’ve embedded our UWB and mmWave radar technologies into platforms powered by Telit Cinterion’s FN990B40. This enables OEMs and operators to deploy intelligent, high-precision IoT services directly within their 5G infrastructure.”
Venkat Kalkunte, Airfide Networks

“This partnership demonstrates how sub-6 5G data card platforms can serve as the foundation for localization, sensing and new monetization opportunities worldwide.”
Neset Yalcinkaya, president of IoT hardware at Telit Cinterion

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With the EU Cyber Resilience Act set to make long-term security updates mandatory, Nordic Semiconductor is repositioning firmware maintenance as a predictable, upfront cost by introducing a lifetime flat-rate FOTA and device management license within nRF Cloud.

For connected-device makers selling into Europe, the conversation around firmware updates has shifted from “nice to have” to “non-negotiable.” The EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) will require manufacturers to provide security updates for identified vulnerabilities throughout a device’s lifetime, and the compliance burden is not only technical. It is also financial and operational: maintaining update infrastructure, planning staged rollouts, and generating evidence of due diligence can create a long tail of cost that many product teams historically underestimated.

Nordic Semiconductor is now trying to make that long tail easier to budget. The company has introduced a one-time, upfront “lifetime” license for Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) and device management in nRF Cloud, positioning it as a way for customers to prepare for CRA requirements starting in 2027.

François Baldassari, founder of Memfault and VP Software Services at Nordic Semiconductor, framed the move in compliance terms: “Preparing for compliance with the EU Cyber Resilience Act is going to add significant operational overhead and project complexity for device manufacturers,” he said.

What Nordic is actually offering

At the core is a pricing and packaging change: instead of treating FOTA and device management as an ongoing cloud subscription or forcing customers to build and operate their own infrastructure, Nordic says nRF Cloud now offers a lifetime model based on a single upfront fee per device.

The company describes nRF Cloud as being pre-integrated on Nordic-based devices and positioned as a turnkey foundation for CRA and U.S. Cyber Trust Mark readiness, citing secure updates, auditability, and long-term support as the pillars of that approach. Nordic also says the offering is available across its low-power wireless portfolio.

From an implementation standpoint, Nordic points to integration with its nRF Connect SDK and calls nRF Cloud a “chip-to-cloud” FOTA solution. The press release lists capabilities that include MCUboot (built into the nRF Connect SDK), a global FOTA delivery network “optimized for low-power devices,” libraries for gateway-based updates, staged rollouts with analytics and rollback, a fleet management console, and governance functions such as approval workflows and immutable audit logs.

Availability, as stated by Nordic, covers nRF54, nRF53, and nRF52 Series Bluetooth Low Energy SoCs, as well as nRF91 Series cellular IoT modules. Nordic says pricing starts at $1 per device, depending on fleet size and project requirements.

Why lifetime licensing matters for IoT teams

FOTA has long been a technical requirement for security and feature maintenance, but regulation is turning it into a product obligation that must survive beyond the initial deployment phase. What changes under CRA-style expectations is not simply that updates must exist; it’s that update delivery, traceability, and organizational process need to persist over the device lifecycle.

That creates friction in procurement and product planning. Subscription-based device management can be straightforward at pilot stage, but becomes harder to forecast as fleets grow and device lifetimes stretch. By offering a one-time license, Nordic is effectively proposing a different budgeting model: shift a recurring operational expense into an upfront, per-device line item that can be baked into BOM-adjacent economics and long-term support planning.

For OEMs and system integrators, the practical impact will likely be felt in three places. First, it may reduce the pressure to build and maintain a bespoke update backend simply to satisfy compliance requirements. Second, it could simplify customer contracts by clarifying who pays for security upkeep over time. Third, it puts more emphasis on choosing silicon and SDK ecosystems that already include a workable secure-update path, rather than bolting one on late in a program.

Nordic’s announcement also reflects a broader pattern in IoT: silicon vendors increasingly sell “systems” that combine hardware, software tooling, and cloud services to reduce time-to-market and lifecycle risk. In Nordic’s case, it is leaning on the infrastructure it acquired with Memfault in 2025, stating that the nRF Cloud FOTA model is built on infrastructure originally developed by Memfault and has been field-tested “across millions of devices.”

Whether lifetime FOTA becomes a new norm will depend on how customers weigh flexibility against predictability. But with CRA enforcement getting closer, the market is clearly moving toward update mechanisms that are not just technically sound, but also operationally sustainable—and that is where Nordic is aiming this new nRF Cloud licensing model.

The post Nordic Semiconductor adds lifetime flat-rate FOTA licensing to nRF Cloud as CRA compliance looms appeared first on IoT Business News.

Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) has emerged as one of the cellular technologies specifically designed to address the connectivity needs of large-scale Internet of Things deployments. As industries deploy millions of connected sensors, meters and devices, traditional cellular networks optimized for smartphones are often inefficient for small, low-power data transmissions. NB-IoT was introduced to address this gap by enabling wide-area connectivity for devices that transmit small amounts of data over long periods.

Today, NB-IoT plays a significant role in the evolution of low-power wide-area networking (LPWAN) within the cellular ecosystem. By leveraging existing mobile infrastructure while optimizing for energy efficiency and coverage, NB-IoT enables operators and enterprises to support massive numbers of connected devices across smart cities, utilities, logistics and industrial environments.

Key Takeaways

• NB-IoT is a cellular LPWAN technology designed for low-power, wide-area IoT connectivity.
• It supports massive device deployments by optimizing bandwidth, energy consumption and network capacity.
• NB-IoT operates within licensed spectrum and can be deployed using existing cellular infrastructure.
• Typical applications include smart metering, asset tracking, environmental monitoring and smart city services.
• While highly efficient for small data transmissions, NB-IoT is not suited for high-throughput or low-latency applications.

What is NB-IoT?

NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) is a low-power wide-area cellular communication technology designed to connect large numbers of devices that transmit small amounts of data over extended periods. Standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), NB-IoT operates within licensed cellular spectrum and is optimized for coverage, energy efficiency and network scalability.

The technology enables IoT devices such as sensors, meters and trackers to communicate directly with cellular networks without requiring complex or power-intensive hardware. By using narrow bandwidth and simplified signaling procedures, NB-IoT reduces device complexity while extending battery life, making it suitable for deployments that must operate unattended for many years.

Within the broader IoT connectivity landscape, NB-IoT sits alongside other LPWAN technologies such as LTE-M and non-cellular solutions like LoRaWAN. Its primary strength lies in providing reliable wide-area connectivity using mobile operator infrastructure, which simplifies network management and supports large-scale deployments.

How NB-IoT works

NB-IoT was designed as an extension of existing cellular networks rather than an entirely new infrastructure. Mobile operators can deploy NB-IoT within their LTE spectrum using software upgrades to base stations, allowing them to support IoT devices without building separate networks.

The technology uses a narrow bandwidth of approximately 180 kHz, significantly smaller than traditional LTE channels. This narrowband approach reduces complexity for both the network and the device, enabling lower-cost chipsets and lower energy consumption.

NB-IoT devices communicate with the network using simplified signaling procedures tailored for intermittent data transmissions. Instead of maintaining continuous connections, devices typically remain in low-power states and wake up periodically to transmit or receive small data packets.

Several mechanisms support this energy efficiency:

• Power Saving Mode (PSM) allowing devices to remain dormant for extended periods.
• Extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) enabling devices to check for network messages less frequently.
• Optimized signaling to reduce overhead for small data transmissions.

These features allow devices to operate for many years on a single battery, which is critical for applications where maintenance or battery replacement is difficult or costly.

Key technologies and standards

NB-IoT is defined within the 3GPP family of cellular standards and was introduced as part of LTE evolution. Its architecture builds on established cellular technologies while introducing optimizations specifically designed for IoT deployments.

Important technologies and mechanisms involved in NB-IoT deployments include:

• 3GPP Release 13 and later – initial NB-IoT standardization and ongoing feature evolution.
• Licensed spectrum operation – ensuring predictable network performance and reduced interference.
• Single-tone and multi-tone transmissions – enabling flexible uplink communication with minimal device complexity.
• Coverage enhancement techniques – allowing devices to communicate even in challenging environments such as underground locations or dense buildings.
• Simplified device architecture – reducing chipset complexity and lowering module costs.

NB-IoT can be deployed using three different spectrum configurations:

• In-band deployment within existing LTE spectrum.
• Guard-band deployment using unused spectrum between LTE carriers.
• Standalone deployment using dedicated spectrum, often refarmed from older GSM networks.

This flexibility allows operators to introduce NB-IoT with minimal disruption to existing network operations.

Main IoT use cases

NB-IoT is particularly suited to IoT applications where devices transmit small amounts of data infrequently but require reliable connectivity across wide geographic areas. These characteristics make it suitable for infrastructure monitoring and long-term sensor deployments.

Some of the most common NB-IoT use cases include:

• Smart metering – electricity, gas and water utilities use NB-IoT to connect millions of meters for automated data collection.
• Smart cities – sensors monitoring street lighting, parking spaces, waste management and environmental conditions.
• Industrial monitoring – remote monitoring of equipment, pipelines or infrastructure in industrial environments.
• Asset tracking – tracking containers, equipment or other mobile assets across wide areas.
• Environmental sensing – air quality monitoring, flood detection or agricultural sensing systems.

In these scenarios, NB-IoT provides sufficient data throughput while minimizing device power consumption and operational costs.

Benefits and limitations

NB-IoT offers several advantages for IoT deployments, particularly where large numbers of low-power devices must operate reliably over long periods.

Key benefits include:

• Extended battery life, often exceeding ten years depending on device behavior.
• Strong indoor and underground coverage due to signal repetition and narrowband operation.
• Ability to support massive numbers of connected devices within a cellular network.
• Use of licensed spectrum, which improves reliability compared to some unlicensed LPWAN technologies.
• Relatively low-cost device modules due to simplified hardware requirements.

However, NB-IoT also presents certain technical constraints that must be considered when selecting connectivity technologies.

Key limitations include:

• Limited data throughput compared to traditional cellular technologies.
• Higher latency than technologies designed for real-time communication.
• Restricted mobility support, making it less suitable for rapidly moving devices.
• Dependence on mobile operator infrastructure availability.

For applications requiring frequent data transmission, real-time responsiveness or high bandwidth, other connectivity technologies such as LTE-M or 5G may be more appropriate.

Market landscape and ecosystem

The NB-IoT ecosystem spans multiple layers of the IoT value chain, from semiconductor providers and device manufacturers to mobile network operators and cloud platform vendors.

Mobile operators play a central role in NB-IoT deployments because the technology operates within licensed cellular spectrum. Many operators have introduced NB-IoT services as part of their broader IoT connectivity portfolios.

The device ecosystem includes chipset manufacturers, module vendors and hardware developers building sensors, meters and industrial equipment that integrate NB-IoT connectivity. These devices are often designed for long lifecycle deployments and must meet strict requirements for reliability and power efficiency.

In parallel, IoT platform providers and application developers integrate NB-IoT connectivity into data management systems, enabling organizations to collect, analyze and act on information generated by connected devices.

The resulting ecosystem reflects the broader IoT architecture in which connectivity, devices and cloud platforms interact to deliver end-to-end solutions.

Future outlook

NB-IoT is expected to remain a key component of the cellular IoT landscape as industries continue deploying large-scale sensor networks. Utilities, municipalities and infrastructure operators in particular are likely to expand deployments where long device lifetimes and wide coverage are critical.

Ongoing evolution within the 3GPP standards framework may continue improving device efficiency, network performance and integration with future cellular technologies. At the same time, NB-IoT will coexist with other connectivity options such as LTE-M and emerging 5G IoT capabilities.

Rather than replacing other technologies, NB-IoT contributes to a diversified connectivity ecosystem in which different network technologies address different classes of IoT applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does NB-IoT stand for?

NB-IoT stands for Narrowband Internet of Things, a cellular LPWAN technology designed for low-power devices transmitting small amounts of data over wide areas.

Is NB-IoT part of 5G?

NB-IoT was originally standardized within LTE networks but is considered part of the broader cellular IoT evolution and can coexist with 5G infrastructure.

How long can an NB-IoT device battery last?

Depending on usage patterns, an NB-IoT device can operate for up to ten years or more on a single battery due to optimized power-saving mechanisms.

What is the difference between NB-IoT and LTE-M?

NB-IoT focuses on low data rates and long battery life for stationary devices, while LTE-M supports higher throughput and mobility for more dynamic IoT applications.

Does NB-IoT require a SIM card?

Most NB-IoT devices use SIM or eSIM technology to authenticate with cellular networks and manage connectivity through mobile operators.

Related IoT topics

• LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for Machines)
• LPWAN connectivity technologies
• 5G IoT architecture
• IoT device power management
• Smart metering infrastructure
• IoT connectivity management platforms

The post NB-IoT: How Narrowband IoT Supports Massive Connected Devices appeared first on IoT Business News.

The rapid expansion of connected devices is pushing enterprises to rethink how machines communicate over wide geographic areas while maintaining energy efficiency and reliability. Cellular IoT technologies have emerged as a key enabler of this shift, offering standardized connectivity built on existing mobile network infrastructure. Among these technologies, LTE-M has gained significant traction for applications that require secure, low-power connectivity across large coverage areas.

Positioned between traditional LTE broadband and ultra-low-power LPWAN solutions, LTE-M addresses a specific class of IoT deployments that need mobility support, extended coverage, and moderate data throughput. From smart meters and asset trackers to industrial monitoring devices, LTE-M plays an increasingly important role in enabling scalable IoT connectivity across multiple industries.

Key Takeaways

• LTE-M is a cellular IoT technology standardized by 3GPP that enables low-power wide-area connectivity using existing LTE networks.
• It offers a balance between energy efficiency, coverage, mobility support, and data throughput for many IoT deployments.
• Typical use cases include asset tracking, smart metering, healthcare devices, and smart city infrastructure.
• LTE-M supports features such as power saving modes, extended coverage, and device mobility across cellular networks.
• The technology is widely supported by mobile operators and is part of the broader evolution toward 5G IoT connectivity.

What is LTE-M for IoT: Benefits, Coverage and Deployment Scenarios?

LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for Machines), also known as LTE Cat-M1, is a cellular low-power wide-area technology designed specifically for Internet of Things devices that require wide coverage, moderate data rates, and extended battery life.

Standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as part of LTE Release 13, LTE-M operates within existing LTE networks but uses reduced bandwidth and optimized signaling to support low-power IoT devices. The technology allows connected objects such as sensors, meters, and trackers to communicate with cloud platforms through mobile network infrastructure.

In the broader IoT connectivity landscape, LTE-M sits alongside technologies such as NB-IoT, traditional LTE, and emerging 5G IoT capabilities. Its design focuses on balancing power efficiency with features that are essential for many real-world deployments, including device mobility and voice support.

How LTE-M for IoT: Benefits, Coverage and Deployment Scenarios works

LTE-M is built on the existing LTE cellular architecture but introduces optimizations tailored for IoT devices. Instead of requiring the full capabilities of broadband LTE connections, LTE-M devices operate within a narrower bandwidth while maintaining compatibility with LTE network infrastructure.

The typical communication architecture involves several components:

• IoT device or sensor equipped with an LTE-M modem and SIM or eSIM.
• Cellular base station (LTE eNodeB) that provides radio connectivity.
• Mobile core network responsible for authentication, mobility management and data routing.
• Cloud platforms or IoT applications that process device data and enable remote device management.

Devices using LTE-M communicate through licensed cellular spectrum, allowing mobile network operators to manage quality of service and interference. This distinguishes cellular IoT technologies from unlicensed LPWAN alternatives that operate in shared radio bands.

Several features improve efficiency for battery-powered IoT devices. Power Saving Mode (PSM) allows devices to enter deep sleep states between transmissions, while extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) enables longer intervals between network listening cycles. These mechanisms help extend battery life to multiple years depending on usage patterns.

Another notable characteristic of LTE-M is its support for device mobility. Connected objects can move across cellular cells while maintaining connectivity, making the technology suitable for mobile applications such as fleet tracking or connected logistics.

Key technologies and standards

The development and deployment of LTE-M relies on several technical standards and network capabilities defined by the 3GPP ecosystem.

• 3GPP Release 13 and later – Introduced LTE-M as a cellular IoT category designed for machine-type communications.
• LTE Cat-M1 device category – Defines reduced bandwidth operation and simplified device capabilities.
• Power Saving Mode (PSM) – Allows devices to enter ultra-low-power sleep states.
• Extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) – Reduces energy consumption by extending paging cycles.
• Half-duplex communication – Simplifies device radio design while lowering cost and power requirements.
• Voice support via VoLTE – Enables applications such as emergency services or wearable devices.

Because LTE-M operates within LTE infrastructure, it benefits from existing cellular security mechanisms including SIM-based authentication, encrypted communication, and network-level device management.

Main IoT use cases

The combination of wide coverage, moderate throughput, and long battery life makes LTE-M suitable for a range of IoT applications that fall between ultra-low-power sensors and high-bandwidth connected devices.

Several industries are adopting LTE-M for large-scale IoT deployments.

• Asset tracking and logistics – Mobile devices attached to containers, vehicles or pallets transmit location and sensor data across national or international transport networks.
• Smart metering – Utilities deploy LTE-M modules in electricity, gas, or water meters to enable remote monitoring and infrastructure management.
• Industrial IoT – Factories and infrastructure operators use LTE-M sensors to monitor equipment performance and environmental conditions.
• Healthcare and wearables – Connected medical devices benefit from reliable connectivity and mobility support.
• Smart city infrastructure – Applications include parking sensors, environmental monitoring, and connected street lighting.

In many of these deployments, devices transmit small packets of data periodically rather than continuously streaming large volumes of information. LTE-M’s bandwidth and energy profile align well with this type of communication pattern.

Benefits and limitations

LTE-M offers several advantages that make it attractive for IoT deployments requiring cellular-grade connectivity.

• Extended coverage – Signal enhancements enable deeper indoor penetration and wider rural coverage compared with traditional LTE devices.
• Mobility support – Devices can move across cellular cells without losing connectivity.
• Energy efficiency – Power-saving features allow multi-year battery life in many applications.
• Global cellular infrastructure – Deployments can leverage existing LTE networks operated by mobile carriers.
• Secure connectivity – SIM-based authentication and cellular security frameworks protect device communications.

Despite these advantages, LTE-M is not suitable for every IoT scenario.

• Higher module cost compared with some unlicensed LPWAN technologies.
• Dependence on mobile network operators for connectivity.
• Limited bandwidth compared with full LTE or 5G broadband services.
• Not optimized for extremely low data rates where alternative LPWAN technologies may be more efficient.

As a result, technology selection often depends on the specific requirements of each IoT project, including coverage, energy constraints, mobility needs, and expected data volumes.

Market landscape and ecosystem

The ecosystem surrounding LTE-M includes a diverse set of stakeholders involved in device manufacturing, connectivity services, and IoT platform integration.

Mobile network operators play a central role by deploying LTE-M support within their LTE infrastructure. Many operators have introduced nationwide LTE-M coverage to address the growing demand for IoT connectivity.

Device manufacturers and module vendors integrate LTE-M modems into sensors, trackers, meters, and other connected equipment. Semiconductor companies develop the chipsets that power these modules, enabling low-power radio communication and cellular protocol handling.

At the software layer, IoT platforms provide device management, data processing, and analytics capabilities that allow enterprises to manage large fleets of connected devices. These platforms often support multiple connectivity technologies, allowing organizations to integrate LTE-M alongside other IoT communication standards.

System integrators and solution providers complete the ecosystem by designing and deploying end-to-end IoT systems tailored to specific industries.

Future outlook

The long-term role of LTE-M is closely linked to the evolution of cellular networks and the broader development of 5G IoT technologies. While 5G introduces new connectivity categories such as massive machine-type communications, LTE-M remains an important component of the cellular IoT roadmap.

Many operators plan to support LTE-M for years as part of their transition from LTE to 5G networks. The technology continues to evolve through additional 3GPP releases that improve energy efficiency, coverage performance, and integration with emerging IoT architectures.

For enterprises deploying connected devices today, LTE-M offers a mature and widely supported connectivity option with a clear migration path within the cellular ecosystem. Its combination of reliability, security, and network coverage positions it as a practical solution for many large-scale IoT deployments.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is LTE-M used for?

LTE-M is used to connect IoT devices that require wide-area cellular coverage, moderate data rates, and long battery life, such as asset trackers, smart meters, and environmental sensors.

How does LTE-M differ from NB-IoT?

LTE-M generally supports higher data rates and device mobility, while NB-IoT is optimized for very low-bandwidth stationary sensors.

Does LTE-M require new cellular infrastructure?

No. LTE-M can be deployed through software upgrades on existing LTE network infrastructure operated by mobile carriers.

How long can LTE-M device batteries last?

Battery life depends on transmission frequency and device design but can often reach several years when power-saving features are used.

Is LTE-M compatible with 5G networks?

LTE-M is expected to coexist with 5G networks and remain part of the cellular IoT connectivity landscape for many years.

Related IoT topics

• NB-IoT connectivity
• LPWAN technologies
• 5G massive IoT
• Cellular IoT modules
• eSIM and remote SIM provisioning
• Edge computing for IoT

The post LTE-M for IoT: Benefits, Coverage and Deployment Scenarios appeared first on IoT Business News.

Today, many challenges remain, as evidenced by a recent conversation I had with Kelly Ireland, CEO, CBT. Comparing and contrasting the past to the present provides good fodder for conversation. But, to start, let’s journey back together.

During World War II, women filled roles in shipyards, factories, and heavy industry, as men went off to war. Women did this with skill and determination, ultimately keeping production moving. But even after the war, Rosie’s legacy still persisted. A cultural shift was underway, as women’s rights movements began in the decades that followed, ultimately laying the groundwork for broader conversations about equality in the workplace.

Rosie the Riveter wasn’t a single person. Rather, she was an image immortalized in J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” poster. Rosie was ultimately a symbol of capability, resilience, and the potential power of a segment of the workforce that was often overlooked.

But to simplify Rosie to only a symbol is a slight to the thousands of women who stepped up during World War II. Meet Frances Mauro Masters, an original Rosie the Riveter from Michigan during World War II. She worked on B-24 Liberator bombers.

At 24 years old, she went to work at the bomber plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., in 1942 along with two of her sisters, Josephine and Angeline. In November 2025, she served as the inspiration for a statue at the Michigan World War II Legacy Memorial.

Frances, like more than 310,000 women across America, was determined to aid her country and support those who were serving in the military. Now, nearly eight decades later, we are seeing obituaries for many of these Rosie the Riveters who served as a cultural revolution, guiding the way for the next era of workers in manufacturing.

Modern Day Challenges

Today’s manufacturing industry is plagued with complex challenges. There is a skills gap across the generations, a volatile supply chain, a need for greater safety and sustainability, and the need to integrate advanced technologies like AI (artificial intelligence), wearables, and more. The tools are different, but the underlying challenge from eight decades ago still remains.

The solution to many of these challenges requires diverse approaches to thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. What is needed is another cultural shift, one that is cross-generational and collaborative at heart.

So, let’s go back to my discussion with Ireland, on The Peggy Smedley Show, she explains the workforce dynamics many manufacturers face today, saying, “You have a mixed workforce. You have youngsters who love tech and want to bring it in … you have an older workforce who are not as much into adopting new tech close to retirement.”

The question then becomes: how do you get management to say, no, you have to? Ireland believes the solution is to bring workers into be a piece of it, with the adoption, so they can see it. Ultimately, true transformation becomes about participation among all, not mandates from the top.

Modern Day Solutions

Often, the solution to many of today’s manufacturing challenges lies at the intersection of people and technology. However, at this intersection also lies complexity. Much of the discourse in this area includes conversation on job displacement, but there is some nuance in this discussion.

“From what we are seeing and the research we are doing, what AI is going to decimate on the white-collar jobs, it is going to do the exact opposite for manual labor, blue-collar jobs, industrial jobs,” explains Ireland. “It can hockey stick that up.”

But adoption will only stick if the numbers make sense. Ireland urges teams must talk about the importance of ROIs (returns on investments). She gives examples of wearable devices that have ROIs in two days and then they have a shelf life of 2-3 years, and businesses can keep adding capabilities to them. Ireland says those are the ones that are going to be successful.

“From the CFO down, they want to see the value this brings,” Ireland says. “If someone can’t lay this out, with this is your ROI, this is very quantifiable, etc., there are not very many people in our industry that can do that right now.”

Ultimately, what manufacturers are doing on the plant floor will end up resonating in at least 25 different industries. If done right, the impact will have far-reaching implications.

What’s Next

Complex systems require diverse, strategic thinking. In the mid-20th century, thousands of women entered an industry. Today, women still remain underrepresented in many technical and manufacturing leadership roles.

Rosie the Riveter reshaped collective beliefs, and today manufacturing faces an equally critical moment. The industry must shift, and that shift will require diverse thinkers. Perhaps we could use a new infusion of Rosie’s energy.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #digitaltransformation #RosietheRiveter #WomensHistoryMonth #WomenWhoLead #EmpowerWomen #InternationalWomensDay

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9 in 10 construction workers in 24 states are not union members.

Let’s break this down.

The data comes from ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors).

And it found at least 90% of construction workers in 24 states did not belong to a union in 2025. Overall, there was a record of 9 million nonunion construction workers compared to 995,000 union members.

What does this mean? ABC urges state policymakers to advance policies that level the playing field, preserve worker choice, and address the issues the construction industry faces—issues like the worker shortage which will amount to 349,000 in 2026.

Of course, the worker shortage is only one challenge the construction industry faces today. The industry also is dealing with economic uncertainty, immigration policy, inflation, and interest rates. Time will only tell how the numbers shake out in the year ahead.

The post Fact of the Week – 3/9/2026 first appeared on Connected World.

Recent data from an Intuit whitepaper reveals that 92% of construction businesses want a single, integrated platform to manage both projects and financials. As costs rise and labor constraints persist, the need to bridge the gap between the office and the field has never been more critical.

Construction professionals are increasingly looking to technology solutions to drive productivity and offset rising costs. With AI spending in the industry expected to surge 44% year-over-year, the opportunity to scale is here.

Enter Intuit Enterprise Suite. With a construction edition designed specifically for the complexities of the industry, this AI-powered ERP is built to help businesses scale. Unlike other ERP systems for industry-specific use, the construction edition for Intuit Enterprise Suite is intentionally created to reflect how construction businesses actually work. The solution brings project, financial, and operational workflows together in one place, helping customers streamline operations, improve cash flow, and deliver real-time visibility into performance to drive profitable growth at scale. Intuit Enterprise Suite can also assist your project teams in job-cost forecasting by leveraging AI-driven insights and digital proposals to bid faster, improve estimate accuracy, and win more work–all while having visibility into costs, approvals, and change orders.

A few standout features of the Intuit Enterprise Suite construction edition include:

• Project Management Agent: Stay on top of cash flow, profitability, and effective project management in one place, planning and tracking budgets and progress against project phases. Early users of the Project Management Agent have seen a 60% reduction in the manual steps it takes to set up a project.
• Project budgets enhancements: Control costs, keep projects on track, and protect margins with a simplified budget setup, real-time AI-powered insights, and more comprehensive project budget reporting.
• Proposals: Win more bids, create proposals from estimates or vice versa, and build a customized proposal document with integrated e-signatures using a proposal document builder.
• Cost groups: Plan and track project costs for better job costing and project profitability tracking by designating industry-standard cost groups, including labor, materials, equipment, and subcontractors, tracking cost groups across budgets, expenses, POs, and bills.
• AIA-style invoicing: Track the total contract value on estimate, invoiced to date, invoice amount, and remaining balance at the phase level.

Intuit was recently named a Constructech 2026 Top Products award in the category of financial, ERP & business operations systems. Each year, Constructech highlights the most innovative and impactful technologies shaping the industry through its “Top Products” awards. The goal of this research is to help industry professionals identify the technologies best positioned to support their businesses in the year ahead and beyond.

With more than 90% of construction businesses agreeing that digital tools are just as important as physical ones, what steps will you take to upgrade your tools to improve your operational agility and ultimately grow your business? 

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #AI #cloud #futureofwork #ConstructechTopProducts

The post AI Drives Intelligent Construction Financials and ERP first appeared on Connected World.

The bottomline is worker‑centric innovations are reshaping how construction gets work done—and much of this progress is built on more than a decade of IoT (Internet of Things)‑enabled equipment, sensors, and connected workflows that quietly laid the foundation for today’s data‑driven capabilities. We are finally seeing the Internet of Things delivering on its promise of solutions to help AI build stronger and better tools for tomorrow.

All about the Technology

Many manufacturers came to ConExpo-Con/Agg with big jobsite announcements. Let’s consider the example of Caterpillar, which debuted Cat Compact, a customer experience for small contractors and growing businesses to bring everything into one destination to buy, rent, and service compact equipment. This blends digital discovery and online research, reducing complexity and helping contractors focus on the job.

Also, the company announced new high-horsepower C3.6 and C13D engines and aftermarket offerings, such as condition monitoring, connectivity tools, and parts options, to help customers protect uptime and get more from equipment. These capabilities build on Caterpillar’s long‑standing IoT and telematics ecosystem, which continues to evolve into more intelligent, connected, and automated jobsite operations.

With a focus on AI, the Cat AI Assistant helps customers interact more easily with Cat equipment and digital tools, enabling faster, smarter decisions from the office to the jobsite. Certainly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The company also demonstrated Caterpillar’s first autonomous soil compactor, as another example of how connected machines, IoT data, and AI are converging.

The technology companies came in strong as well. Topcon Positioning Systems announced new 3D machine control technologies, expanded functionalities, and enhanced safety features for earthmoving and paving applications, as well as geomatic technologies for surveying and building construction applications. Perhaps what’s important to note here is that none of this begins with AI. The precision and productivity we’re seeing today are rooted in IoT‑enabled positioning, sensing, and realtime data exchange that have been maturing on jobsites for more than a decade.

All this technology is great, but what about the people? Educating workers on what’s new—and what is applicable to their jobsite is a massive undertaking. And then, of course, the training adds another layer to all of this. Fortunately, we are seeing new advances there too.

All about the Training

John Deere made several major equipment and technology announcements, including a new immersive learning environment with John Deere Extended Reality Training System. The company says this immersive, headset-based solution is designed to change how operators, dealers, and customers learn about their machines.

The technology leverages a combination of VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) experiences to create an engaging and interactive learning environment. The first release, available to both John Deere customers and dealers, will focus on two machines: the 650 P-Tier Dozer and the 210 P-Tier Excavator.

It will feature operator-focused virtual reality lessons, including daily maintenance walkarounds, controls familiarization, and direct interaction modules such as trenching and spreading. Augmented reality experiences will support electrical component location and machine walkarounds. Increasingly, these training modules draw from IoT‑enabled machine data, giving operators a more accurate, real‑world understanding of how equipment behaves in the field.

Certainly, this type of learning experience is not new. I remember attending this same event eight years ago and trying a similar interactive learning experience with a different company.

And yet we continue to see more immersive learning experiences emerge. Interplay Learning, which now includes Industrial Training Intl., showcased new training solutions to improve workforce development in high-risk environments. The centerpiece here is the company’s enhanced VR Crane Simulator, which now supports training across 10 crane types and with more than 1,200 scenarios.

This allows companies to align training more closely with the equipment operators use in the field. Some benefits here include the ability to train operators with immersive simulations, practice complex and high-risk lifts without putting people at risk and align training to exact equipment used in the field.

From high-power equipment and data-driven systems to strategic discussions around policy, safety, and workforce growth, at the center of all of this is the people and the processes that make progress possible. As the construction industry continues to navigate labor challenges, safety priorities, and rapidly evolving technologies, the focus should always remain on how the future of work will continue to take shape in the construction industry.

Behind every autonomous machine, predictive maintenance tool, or immersive training module is an IoT foundation that has been steadily connecting equipment, people, and processes for more than a decade. This editor has not only witnessed that journey but has seen how the IoT legacy we built over the past decade is now powering the next wave of AI‑driven, worker‑centric innovation—reshaping the construction jobsite in realtime.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure #CONEXPOCONAGG2026 #CONEXPO2026

The post Construction’s Future of Work Comes into Focus first appeared on Connected World.

The State of the Market

Skanska recently released its Winter 2026 Construction Trends Report, which offers a look at how the industry is entering the new year after a challenging 2025 defined by cost pressures, uneven demand, and continued uncertainty. We see after growth in 2023 and 2024, persistent labor shortages, tariff uncertainty, and elevated construction costs moderated activity in 2025.

There are a few areas that are seeing greater, faster growth than others. Skanska says the standout growth drivers are data centers and large tech-related megaprojects, powered by ongoing demand for AI (artificial intelligence), cloud, and data infrastructure. The large amounts of capital these projects attract are sustaining the engineering and construction pipeline. Institutional construction—particularly healthcare, education, and public facilities—are also projected to outpace broader nonresidential activity. Softer markets include residential and cyclical commercial segments, such as retail, office, and more.

Looking to the future, Skanska suggests consensus forecasts point to slight gains in total construction spending in 2026—flat to low single-digit growth—as private investment remains cautious, and economic and policy uncertainty persist.

Of course, Skanska’s report is only one example. Many construction companies are releasing market condition reports. Another example comes from DPR Construction, which recently release its Q1 2026 Market Conditions Report. We see there is moderate optimism for the healthcare and manufacturing markets, which are expected to see steady activity and potential expansion. In contrast, sectors such as higher education and commercial office are projected to decline in 2026, reflecting shifting priorities and changing market conditions.

Delivery Shifts for Construction

This report from DPR Construction agrees with the first from Skanska that in 2025 data center projects became a major focus for the construction industry—and suggests this trend is set to continue in 2026. Perhaps this is a bit of an obvious statement, but it bears repeating and greater analysis since the projections are huge. Deloitte estimates by 2035, power demand from AI-driven data centers could increase more than thirtyfold.

The bigger story here is that this will ultimately end up changing how owners go to market. DPR Construction suggests owners are shifting from traditional cost-focused strategies to prioritizing speed to market. We are also seeing a change in how projects are planned, procured, and executed. The DPR report suggests there are some key drivers that could ultimately impact other key markets including:

1. Early development of strategic partnerships that could reshape procurement processes and planning approaches. Think more agile and innovative project delivery models.
2. Proactive supply chain management and prefabrication decisions will be essential to identify risks and opportunities.
3. Prioritizing BIM (building information modeling) and digital twins as foundational elements for project delivery is no longer a nice-to-have; it is a must-have.
4. Embracing flexibility and innovative delivery models will be key. We could finally see a faster rise of more collaborative models where risks are shared among the stakeholders.

While the DPR report didn’t come right out and say IPD (integrated project delivery), the underlying collaborative effort is apparent in the research. Here at Constructech, we have long been talking about the rise of IPD in the construction industry, and now with the need for quick delivery of data center projects at the forefront, what we learned more than 10 years ago could become applicable more today than ever before.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure #datacenter #IPD

The post Construction Digs into the State of the Market first appeared on Connected World.

From the state of Washington to New Jersey, new collaborations are demonstrating how education is becoming a central strategy for responsible AI adoption.

What’s Happening in Washington State

To get started, let’s travel to the state of Washington. Here we see the University of Washington and Microsoft have announced an expansion to their decades-long partnership, with a focus on accelerating AI discovery to prepare students and workers to use AI responsibly.

This partnership will expand internships and applied research opportunities for students. It will also develop community AI literacy programs, including a foundational AI course for working Washingtonians. We also see it will launch a new initiative to connect staff and students with real-world research opportunities at Microsoft.

Additionally, beginning this fall, the University of Washington and Microsoft will launch a new collaboration on Microsoft’s Redmond campus that will co-develop select courses and learning experiences for Microsoft employees, while enabling university students to learn alongside industry professionals.

What’s Happening in Indiana

Moving east to Indiana, we see Purdue University and Google Public Sector are deepening their long-standing collaboration, with a partnership aimed to advance AI-enabled education, accelerate AI innovation, and expand AI workforce development.

This multiyear strategic commitment provides students, faculty and researchers with Google Cloud’s full AI-optimized tech stack and high-performance computing power. With a commitment to Google Partnership for Accelerated Research program, Purdue students, faculty, researchers, and staff can access Google Cloud’s AI enterprise tools and software.

The university will also receive access to Google DeepMind’s co-scientist, which is a multi-agent AI system built with Gemini to help scientists generate novel hypotheses and research proposals. Also, the creation of the Google AI Hub space within Purdue’s Hall of Data Science and AI will serve as a campus space where students and researchers connect to spark hands-on collaboration and breakthrough innovation.

This extends Purdue’s broad strategy of AI, which includes five functional areas including:

1. Learning with AI
2. Learning about AI
3. Researching AI
4. Using AI
5. Partnering in AI

This is yet another example of collaboration that will lead to greater education in artificial intelligence at the university level.

What’s Happening in New Jersey

Let’s make one more jump east, this time to New Jersey. In February, NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) announced applications are open for an ambitious expansion of their workforce development partnership with Verizon.

Expected to launch in early April, this will provide no-cost, high-impact training in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and IT to eligible New Jersey residents. The objective here is to bridge the digital skills gap.

Central to this new phase is the launch of a Cybersecurity Community of Practice, a collaborative ecosystem where participants, industry experts, and NJIT graduate students engage in peer-to-peer learning and mentorship.

The program offers a comprehensive curriculum, including certification prep, microcredential, and cybersecurity community of practice. Most training is offered online and laptops/internet are available for qualifying participants to assist with access.

These are just three examples of partnerships that aim to equip students, workers, and communities with the credentials and experience needed to work in a high-tech, AI-driven world. I have been sounding the alarm for years now. We need to invest in our workforce. People are—and always will be—the key to good AI strategies.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #digitaltransformation #worker

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Robots used for security at major venues are not new. Back in 2018, I met B-3PO (“she” was intentionally designated as a female) at New York’s LaGuardia Airport Terminal B.

As I was entering the terminal, she rolled up to me and stopped. I had a “conversation” with her (and found out later that the robot had a realtime connection to a real NYC police officer (a lady) that could make the conversation seem “real”).

It was an experiment and did not last long, but in 2026, with the price-point of robots decreasing while their capabilities are expanding, I expect to see more of these security deployments going forward.

Robot dogs are not a new configuration. Boston Dynamics’ “Spot” is a good example and it has been around for many years, being first introduced in 2016. That’s a decade ago!

Long before Spot arrived, there was Aibo. I worked for Sony for many years, and I attribute my interest in robotic dogs to Aibo, which was introduced to the world in 1999 as a “pet.” It was quite advanced for the time, having cameras and sensors enabling it to “learn” behaviors over time and respond to voice commands. It made a great Christmas gift for the children, if you could afford it.

It showed that robot dogs could be emotional companions, not just machines. As of 2018, AI (artificial intelligence) and cloud integration were added.

There’s a saying that a dog is a man’s best friend, and I think that we culturally relate to dogs far more deeply than any other animal in general.

As long as non-military robot dogs can’t shoot you, they will make entertaining augmentations to your personal security at public events. Your kids will love it!

About the Author

Tim Lindner develops multimodal technology solutions (voice / augmented reality / RF scanning) that focus on meeting or exceeding logistics and supply chain customers’ productivity improvement objectives. He can be reached at linkedin.com/in/timlindner.

The post Woof! All Bark and No Bite (for Now) first appeared on Connected World.

This is where new additive manufacturing and 3D printing research enters the equation. Purdue University engineer Monique McClain is developing new methods to control materials’ behaviors throughout the manufacturing process. Professor McClain specializes in the early manufacturing stages such as selecting binders with unique properties to hold energetic particles together and determine how they are mixed.

As an example, a study from Professor McClain looked at adhesion between two polymers with different mechanical properties—think a stiff thermoplastic and a soft elastomer—that have been combined into one structure.

Here is how this can help in manufacturing:

• Enable the two materials to blend and hold together.
• Give more options for controlling behavior.
• Improve safety.

Looking to the future, additive manufacturing will give researchers the freedom to experiment with complex geometries and tune specific properties such as burn rate and blast shape. This is simply one example of research being done in the area.

The post Success Stories: Additive Manufacturing Evolves first appeared on Connected World.

How smart are our cities? Maybe not quite smart enough, but they will be smarter in the future.

Smart cities contain several key areas of research. Let’s look at the most research figures in 2024 from Berg Research:

• Smart-street lighting: 27.9 million units (excluding China)
• Smart parking: 1.47 million units (in ground and surface mounted)
• Smart-waste collection: 1.56 million units (new on bins or retrofitted)
• Urban air quality monitoring: 206,000 units

Another key area is smart-city surveillance, which is measured in dollars rather than units. Berg Insight suggests this market, which includes both fixed and mobile video and audio surveillance solutions, reached a global market value of € 13.6 billion in 2024. This market is anticipated to grow at a rate of 15.6% through 2029.

Looking to the future, the smart-street lighting market will reach 74.5 million units in 2029, which is a 21.8% growth rate. Smart-parking sensors will see slower growth of 18.4%, while smart waste sensor technology market will be the fastest growing at 22.3%. Urban air quality monitoring will reach 633,000 units in 2029.

Outside China, Europe has emerged as the leading smart city technology adopter while North America is the second largest market. The Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions meanwhile are the fastest growing markets for smart city technology. It is certainly a market to continue to watch.

The post Fact of the Week – 2/23/2026 first appeared on Connected World.

“Utilities need to make a difficult decision,” says Dominique Meyer, CEO of Looq AI. He says they ultimately need to decide whether these poles need to be replaced or not—and making that decision can cost a lot of time and money. Meyer tells me directly that North America’s distribution poles are even more substantial than earlier estimates, placing the total near 400 million.

No doubt, utilities are under mounting pressure to meet state requirements for wildfire mitigation and storm hardening. As a result, accurate pole data has become a cornerstone of grid reliability. Yet much of this data is still gathered and processed through slow, manual, and inconsistent workflows—often requiring two people to collect the data. With the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) much of this is set to change.

Looq aims to solve the challenge of spotty, inaccurate, and unreliable data, according to Meyer, by creating a full geometric engineering grade model of every single asset. qPole enables distribution designers and engineers to transform simple field captures into accurate engineering-ready asset models.

Traditional field capture alone takes roughly 15 minutes per pole. Backoffice processing previously added another 15 minutes per pole, as engineers manually validate data. Now, that is all beginning to change. As one example of new technology, the qPole AI-assisted processing is completed in about 5-7 minutes per pole and automatically detects and models each structure and its equipment.

Meyer equates the average saving of 23 minutes per pole to represent unlocking an estimated 19 million work hours saved annually in the United States alone.

“We are enabling designers, backoffice work, to be way more effective,” says Meyer. “We’re essentially increasing their efficiency by over 60% in the backoffice, and that means that because there are not enough people that do this kind of work, those people that do it get more efficient. The industry feels a huge pain and relief around that.”

The time savings is only one component of benefit for engineers. Field measurements are also accurate to under a centimeter, which helps derive correct construction requirements, avoiding overbuilt or unnecessary projects, ultimately saving money in the long run.

“That’s the real magic behind qPole is that automation piece in matching components to geometric and image perimeters,” says Meyer.

Candidly, this is the type of innovation we need to build stronger, more resilient infrastructure here in the United States. If we want to raise our nearly failing grade, we must take swift action. Or we’ll see the report card virtually unchanged in three years.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure #utilities #energy #utility 

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If you also paying close attention to the themes here on my Connected World blog then you might recognize that I have spent some considerable time looking at the basics of quantum. This month, I have  taken a deeper dive into quantum in manufacturing and in medical and additionally into finance and telco. Over on our Constructech blog, I have been looking at quantum in construction.

Here’s the hard reality: Optimization problems in global telecommunications networks represent large combinatorial search spaces that grow exponentially with network size, making them computationally intensive to solve. This is one of the perfect use cases for quantum computing to help solve. Simply, trying quantum can really explore massive decision spaces that classical computers, let’s say, get stifled on.

With this in mind, let’s consider a new announcement. Classiq, Comcast, and AMD, recently put out a new trial aimed at improving internet delivery by leveraging quantum algorithms to supercharge network routing resilience. This partnership will address a big network design challenge: identifying independent backup paths for network sites when implementing network maintenance and change management.

Unpacking the Trial

This effort signifies an interesting new shift. The objective here is that if a network site is taken offline for routine maintenance and a second site fails, network traffic could be rerouted without any disruption or degradation to customer connectivity.

This is, of course, easier said than done. To achieve this outcome, operators must identify unique backup paths that are fast, resilient to simultaneous link failures, and optimized for the lowest latency delivery, a task that becomes exponentially harder to identify as networks grow.

Enter quantum. This trial applied technologies to test whether quantum algorithms could identify unique network backup paths across change management scenarios. With the GPU-accelerated simulations, the teams were able to iterate rapidly and validate algorithm behavior, together with runs executed on quantum hardware to assess implementation success.

This is only one example of quantum in telecommunications. Quantum opens the door to new opportunities—and we are beginning to see some good use cases emerge.

Final Thoughts on Quantum

As we wrap up our month reporting on quantum and as we look ahead to what comes next, we must recognize quantum is no longer a far-off concept. We are now beginning to move into real-world applications across many vertical markets.

While still early, many of these use cases point to an interesting market shift. Quantum is becoming a more practical tool for enhancing resilience, optimizing performance, and future-proofing our world. As applications continue to expand, we will have new ways to solve complex challenges. Quantum could be the key to all of this.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #digitaltransformation #quantum #connectivity #connection

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The algorithm uses a mathematical tool called the Frobenius norm to measure differences between grids of numbers, effectively acting as a “distance formula” for large data tables. By rotating a reference dataset and comparing it to measured data, the algorithm identifies the rotation that produces the smallest difference, revealing the most likely direction of the signal.

Simulations show the method works especially well with high-resolution data and large datasets. The project began with simulated neutrino data to locate nuclear reactors, and further studies are underway.

Here is how this can help:

· Reveal information about nuclear reactors, the sun, and faraway cosmic events.

· A clear mathematical foundation for extracting direction.

· Scale with technological improvements.

Looking to the future, this formula could be applied in many fields such as astronomy, medical imaging, weather mapping, and more. It is ideal for systems that rely on pattern recognition. Certainly, it will be something to keep an eye on in the future.

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Are tech budgets up or down? Gartner suggests technology budgets are set to rise for 75% of CFOs.

Nearly half are planning increases of 10% or more.

Perhaps one of the more interesting points in the recent study is that the numbers point to an interesting trend to watch: AI (artificial intelligence) adoption is moving from pilot to scale.

Let’s consider some of the numbers that contribute to this trend.

· 60% of CFOs plan to increase finance function AI investments by 10% or more in 2026.

· 24% expect gains of between 4% and 9%.

· 47% are allocating just 1% to 5% of finance technology spend on AI.

Why is this shift occurring? The numbers suggest there are three top priorities that emerge among the research:

1. Automate

2. Shorten cycles

3. Control Costs

Confidence is definitely growing among organizations when it comes to artificial intelligence, as many are beginning to see the benefits of. Time will certainly tell how the rate of adoption pans out.

The post Fact of the Week – 3/02/2026 first appeared on Connected World.

Many of you may remember NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) released a very telling paper in 2004: Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the U.S. Capital Facilities Industry.

The research unpacked that the cost of inadequate interoperability in the U.S. capital facilities industry is roughly $15.8 billion per year. Back two decades ago, billion was the big word. What followed after this report was a slow unpacking of the challenges that exist when disparate systems exist in large, complex industries.

What progress has been made in the last two decades? Let’s jump forward a bit to 2021, when Autodesk and FMI Corp., unveiled its study of more than 3,900 professionals on their data practices in 2020. The research found bad data—meaning inaccurate, incomplete, inaccessible, inconsistent, or untimely data—may have cost the global construction industry $1.85 trillion in 2020. Yes, now we are talking trillions with a T.

What is needed is a new infusion of innovation and a spirit of collaboration in the construction industry. This is precisely why we do the Constructech Top Products awards program every year. It is an opportunity for our team to intimately engage with a panel of judges including analysts, professors, consultants, and experts, to scope the landscape of innovation in construction.

We continue to see new advances among those named to the list. Consider the recent example of Intuit Enterprise Suite. In February, the company announced the launch of the new AI-powered Construction Edition for Intuit Enterprise Suite.

Certainly, the AI capabilities will bring new opportunities for construction, but it is the end-to-end nature of the product that is interesting. The new solution brings project, financial, and operational workflows together in one place, helping customers streamline operations, improve cash flow, and deliver realtime visibility into performance to drive profitable growth at scale.

Of course, this is only one example. The technology named to the Constructech Top Products are some of the best in the industry, offering capabilities to solve many of the challenges the industry faces today, such as the labor shortage.

The common thread across this year’s Constructech Top Products is not simply that they are powered by AI, leverage the cloud, or deliver enhanced dashboards, it is that they are intentionally designed to serve the needs of today’s contractor.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure #interoperability

The post A Call for Collaboration in Construction first appeared on Connected World.

While 1.13 million women worked in the construction industry in 2006, that total fell to just 802,000 in 2012. What happened during that time to make the numbers drop so sharply? Simply, the 2008 Great Recession. However, since 2012, the number of female construction employees has increased. In 2024, women represented 11.2% of the construction workforce, which is the highest share in two decades, according to the NAHB (National Assn. of Home Builders).

As Peggy Smedley always says, the construction industry is cyclical in nature. There will always be downturns, but the construction industry weathers the storm, and while there are certainly changes that happen, the industry often comes back stronger than before. Because the truth is construction is essential. There will always be something that is needed.

Construction workers are also essential. In fact, with a labor shortage, the industry needs more workers than before. The industry also needs diversity in thoughts, opinions, and ideas. This is why different generations, different genders, and different races are key.

Women in Construction

Last year, Peggy Smedley penned an interesting blog about women in the workforce. The statistics show women make up nearly 47% of the overall U.S. workforce, yet in construction they only represent about 11% of workers. Even fewer of those women are in the skilled trade. While it is clearly an improvement, there is still much work to be done.

Perhaps the first step is understanding why the gap exists. A survey by PWC (Professional Women in Construction) New York from last year shows that women are drawn to construction for solid reasons: competitive pay, career advancement, professional development, strong benefits, and job security.

In fact, the industry boasts one of the lowest gender pay gaps, with women earning roughly 95% of what their male peers make, notably better than the national average.

Perhaps the second step then is getting this messaging out to the general public and building awareness about the opportunities for women in construction. This is where Women in Construction Week enters the conversation. This tradition of Women in Construction Week dates back more than six decades. Back in 1960, Amarillo Mayor A.F. Madison proclaimed the first “Women in Construction Week” to honor the founding of NAWIC (National Assn. of Women in Construction) and recognize the growing contributions of women in the field. Since that time, the movement has grown and evolved.

In 1998, NAWIC moved WIC Week to the first full week of March to align with Women’s History Month and Intl. Women’s Day. Now, the event includes national campaigns, regional programs, and chapter-led events across the United States that includes jobsite tours, panel discussions, mentorship sessions, media outreach, and community service projects.

This year, Women in Construction week also aligns with CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026, which is being held March 3-7 in Las Vegas, Nev. With all of this converging at the same time, there is a bigger conversation that is happening around women in the construction industry.

The bigger question becomes: Are we really truly making a difference with all this messaging? It seems the numbers are finally pointing to some growth as it relates to women in the construction industry, but is that growth happening fast enough?

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure #WICWEEK2026 #CONEXPOCONAGG

The post Here Come the Women in Construction first appeared on Connected World.

Program continues Netmore’s drive to transform IoT market fragmentation into a new world of connections

Netmore Group, the leading network operator and platform provider for Massive IoT, today announced the launch of the Netmore Pulse partner program, a comprehensive program designed to provide partners with early insight into opportunities, accelerate new use cases, and turn local expertise into scalable, joint success.

The program, available worldwide, addresses longstanding industry fragmentation by combining Netmore’s network services and commercial leadership with solutions and devices proven capable to scale in markets demanding predictability and high service levels. Program participants are positioned as a qualified, low-risk choice for large-scale IoT projects, while end customers searching for trusted, high-performing partners now gain a powerful advantage by knowing solutions and hardware are ready to run at scale on the Netmore platform.

With over 200 ecosystem existing partners and the unification of world-leading partner ecosystems through its recent acquisition of Actility, Netmore’s introduction of the Pulse program is a natural evolution to a more systematic approach of driving innovation and streamlining the deployment of end-to-end IoT solutions.

Empowering Partners to Grow

The Netmore Pulse program is organized around three partner tracks: Ecosystem, Channel, and Institutional. Based on tier and commitment levels, the program provides participants with the structure, support, and resources they need to grow their IoT business efficiently. Key benefits include:

• Structured partner tiers with transparent criteria and commercial alignment
• Dedicated onboarding, training and technical enablement resources
• Partner Management and Operations support
• Joint go-to-market activities
• Recognition and future data-driven tools that reward and support strong performance

“IoT is scaling rapidly, and collaboration is the key to sustainable growth,” said Frederik Oliver, VP Growth at Netmore. “Our ambitions are clear: to deliver the world’s leading IoT platform, achieve global scale as a cost leader, and be the easiest IoT network provider to work with. Together with our partners, we are creating the world’s leading IoT ecosystem that will shape industries and deliver impact worldwide.”

Netmore’s Pulse Program is earning praise from early access participants for its clear collaboration framework, practical enablement materials, and focus on accelerating LoRaWAN adoption and joint growth.

Craig Herret, Managing Director, Alliot (Europe’s leading IoT distributor specializing in LoRaWAN solutions), noted: “Reliable connectivity is critical to ensuring successful deployments for our partners. Netmore’s Pulse Program provides a clear framework, robust onboarding and training, and excellent support, making it easier to package and resell end-to-end solutions. This is set to be an exciting year for growth and LoRaWAN acceleration.”

Felipe Gutierre, Alliance Manager at TagoIO (a global IoT application enablement platform provider managing millions of data points), added: “The Netmore Pulse Program makes it straightforward to integrate connectivity into our solutions and go-to-market. The materials are practical, the model is clear, and the team is easy to work with. We’re very positive about the opportunities ahead.”

Alexandre Russo, Telecom Manager at TC Tec (a Brazilian telecom provider scaling LoRaWAN deployments in Latin America), emphasized: “Netmore’s partner program adds structure and predictability from onboarding to delivery. The high-quality training and support help our teams move faster. We´re optimistic about scaling our joint business this year and into the future.”

Join the Netmore Pulse Program Today!

Dedicated to leading the transformation of the LPWAN ecosystem, Netmore powers some of the most advanced IoT solutions globally. Companies interested in partnering with Netmore to accelerate the adoption of IoT solutions across industries can learn more about the Netmore Pulse partner program and apply at www.netmoregroup.com/partners.

The post Netmore Launches Pulse Partner Program for IoT Growth appeared first on IoT Business News.

Deutsche Telekom launches world’s first multi-orbit IoT roaming

• Deutsche Telekom is world’s first network operator to offer IoT connectivity via both GEO and LEO satellites
• Seamless, reliable NB-IoT coverage across terrestrial mobile and satellite networks
• Innovative applications realized on standard hardware

Deutsche Telekom has reached another milestone in global connectivity: as the world’s first mobile network operator, it now enables multi-orbit roaming for the Internet of Things (IoT).

The new solution ensures that IoT devices can transmit their data seamlessly and worldwide— either via terrestrial mobile networks or via satellite, depending on the situation.

Multi-orbit roaming has now been demonstrated using a commercial NB-IoT device that operates across geostationary (GEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites as well as terrestrial networks.

The solution connects Deutsche Telekom’s global IoT network (NB-IoT and LTE-M) with satellite services from several partners: Skylo, being DT’s first satellite service provider, provides coverage in geostationary orbit, while Sateliot and OQ Technology handle radio connectivity to LEO satellites.

Jens Olejak, Head of Satellite IoT at Deutsche Telekom IoT, says:

“This establishes Deutsche Telekom as the leading global network operator offering IoT connectivity across multiple satellite orbits, both technically and commercially.”

Additionally, in the second half of 2026, Deutsche Telekom’s partner Iridium’s NTN Direct will become available to DT’s business customers for IoT applications.

Iridium’s LEO constellation, known for its proven reliability and truly global coverage, will further enhance Deutsche Telekom’s non-terrestrial roaming footprint.

More coverage, more resilience, more flexibility

Multi-orbit combines the strengths of different satellite types.

Due to their fixed position at an altitude of approximately 36,000 kilometers, GEO satellites allow continuous coverage and enable real time, stable connections.

LEO satellites, on the other hand, move quickly but can provide better coverage at high latitudes and in mountainous regions, as well as enabling lower latency and higher data rates.

Together, GEO and LEO create reliable IoT connectivity even in the most remote regions.

Early Adopter Program: Prototyping the next generation of IoT

After its initial Early Adopter Program with Skylo in 2024, Deutsche Telekom launched a second prototyping initiative for Satellite IoT in 2025.

The Multi-Orbit Early Adopter Program focuses on developing IoT solutions that combine terrestrial mobile and satellite connectivity across GEO and LEO.

The program brings together 15 companies and five research institutions and is supported by partners including Sateliot, OQ Technology, Skylo, Nordic Semiconductor and KYOCERA AVX.

Three examples from the program illustrate the added value of multi-orbit roaming:

Remote Asset Management for Critical Infrastructure Operations (Datakorum)

The Spanish technology company Datakorum is using next-generation connectivity to support the remote operation of critical infrastructure assets worldwide.

Its solution enables real-time monitoring of key parameters such as quality, pressure, and system status across water, energy, and oil and gas infrastructure—even in remote areas without mobile coverage.

Beyond monitoring, operators can remotely control field equipment such as valves and actuators via radio links, improving response times and operational efficiency.

To ensure resilience in mission-critical environments, the solution leverages LEO satellites as a backup connectivity layer.

Datakorum has integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial radio technologies into a single product based on Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9151 module.

Maritime tracking & EU regulation (EMA / BlueTraker):

Under the brand BlueTraker, the Slovenian company EMA provides tracking solutions for fishing vessels and merchant ships.

“Hybrid connectivity” – the combination of satellite and mobile networks – ensures that vessels can reliably report their position and status even on the open sea.

This is particularly important given new EU regulations: in the future, even small vessels under twelve meters in length will be required to have a vessel monitoring system (VMS) installed on board.

Deutsche Telekom’s satellite NB-IoT (NB-NTN) option is a cost-effective and scalable standard solution for this purpose, enabling even large fleets of small boats to be networked without the need for expensive special technology.

Autonomous AI-Vision-Sensor (MountAIn):

With IBEX, French company MountAIn is bringing intelligent image processing to remote regions that have not yet been reliably connected.

Autonomous AI vision sensor processes image data directly on site (“edge AI”) and detects events such as forest fires, safety-related incidents in industrial facilities, or risks to critical infrastructure in real time.

The possibility of NB-IoT satellite connections ensures that warning messages and operating data are reliably available even in remote regions, providing the resilience required for safety-critical applications.

Since only relevant status and alarm data is transmitted, the solution also works with a narrowband internet connection.

Technical background

Deutsche Telekom and its partners validated multi-orbit connectivity on commercially available standard hardware.

Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9151 is the first 3GPP-compliant cellular IoT module to support terrestrial NB-IoT/LTE-M as well as NB-NTN over GEO and LEO.

In tests, the module established a direct connection via Sateliot’s LEO satellites using a Deutsche Telekom SIM card—demonstrating that roaming between terrestrial mobile networks and LEO satellites works.

In addition, connectivity via Skylo (GEO) is already operationally used by customers, while integration with OQ Technology (LEO) has also been validated as part of partner activities.

Iridium (LEO) is currently being integrated and validated and will become available later this year.

For satellite connectivity, the antennas used must support the relevant 3GPP satellite frequency bands n249, n255 and n256.

These frequency bands are a prerequisite for operating NB-NTN over GEO and LEO satellites.

Suitable antenna solutions are already available from manufacturers such as KYOCERA AVX, enabling device manufacturers to build on existing components today and develop new multi-orbit NB-IoT solutions.

The post Deutsche Telekom unveils multi-orbit IoT roaming appeared first on IoT Business News.

Enterprise IoT connectivity is no longer a simple trade-off between “cheap LPWA” and “fast cellular.” In 2026, device makers and large-scale IoT operators must build connectivity strategies that survive network sunsets, uneven roaming realities, growing security expectations, and the arrival of new middle-tier 5G options such as RedCap (Reduced Capability).

This article breaks down broadband IoT vs. narrowband IoT from an enterprise architecture perspective, and proposes a decision framework to choose (and combine) LTE-M, NB-IoT, LTE Cat 1 bis, full LTE/5G, RedCap/eRedCap, and emerging satellite NTN layers.

Defining the battlefield: what “narrowband” and “broadband” mean in 2026

Narrowband IoT typically refers to LPWA cellular technologies optimised for low throughput, low power, and deep coverage—most notably NB-IoT and LTE-M. These technologies are designed for massive sensor fleets, long battery life, and low-cost modules, at the expense of data rate and (often) roaming consistency.

Broadband IoT covers higher-throughput cellular options such as LTE Cat 4/6, 5G eMBB, and private cellular variants used for cameras, gateways, moving assets with heavy telemetry, and devices that need frequent firmware updates or richer data flows.

In between sits the most interesting strategic battleground for 2026: mid-tier IoT, where enterprises want more throughput than LPWA, but cannot justify the cost/power footprint of full 5G. This is precisely where 5G RedCap (3GPP Release 17) is positioned.

Market reality check: coverage and ecosystem maturity still matter more than specs

On paper, it’s tempting to map requirements to a “perfect” radio technology. In real deployments, enterprises still get burned by three recurring issues:

• Footprint and local availability: NB-IoT and LTE-M coverage varies widely by country and operator strategy. A network being “launched” does not automatically mean it is suitable for your roaming footprint.
• Roaming and operational scale: global fleets need predictable onboarding, profile management, and lifecycle support—especially when devices are deployed for 8–15 years.
• Network sunsets: 2G/3G shutdowns continue to force migrations and redesigns. Even if your new design is “future-proof,” it still must survive the transition period—country by country.

The core enterprise lesson: connectivity decisions are as much about supply chain and operational control as they are about radio performance.

Technology map for enterprise IoT in 2026

NB-IoT: ultra-low power and deep coverage, with constraints

NB-IoT remains a strong choice for metering, simple sensors, and reporting-based assets where payloads are tiny and latency is non-critical. Its strengths—coverage extension and power efficiency—are unmatched for many low-data devices. But enterprises must validate roaming, latency tolerance, and firmware update strategy early (because “it supports updates” is not the same as “updates are operationally safe at scale”).

LTE-M: the LPWA option when mobility and interactivity matter

LTE-M is often positioned as “NB-IoT plus mobility.” For wearables, moving assets, and devices needing more interactive behaviour, LTE-M can be a better fit—especially when the product roadmap includes richer telemetry, voice features, or more frequent updates. The catch: LTE-M availability is not universal, so you must validate footprint and long-term operator support per region.

LTE Cat 1 bis: the quiet workhorse for global scale

Many enterprises in 2026 increasingly treat LTE Cat 1 bis as a pragmatic baseline where NB-IoT/LTE-M coverage or roaming is uncertain. Cat 1 bis can offer a more straightforward global story than LPWA in some footprints, with acceptable power profiles for externally powered devices or “battery plus energy-optimised design” scenarios.

5G RedCap (Release 17): the emerging mid-tier option

RedCap (Reduced Capability) was standardised in 3GPP Release 17 to reduce 5G device complexity (bandwidth, antennas, and other capabilities) while retaining significantly higher data rates than LPWA options—making it relevant for richer telemetry, industrial sensors with heavier payloads, and devices that need frequent secure updates.

However, enterprises should treat RedCap as a transition technology with real-world caveats: network readiness varies, module availability differs by region, and certification/roaming realities can lag marketing timelines.

eRedCap (Release 18 direction): why operators care

Beyond classic RedCap, the industry is framing eRedCap as part of the longer migration path that eventually allows operators to simplify networks and reclaim spectrum. For enterprises, the key takeaway is not the buzzword—it’s that your device roadmap should assume multiple technology generations during a single product lifetime.

Satellite NTN enters the enterprise playbook (as an overlay, not a replacement)

Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are becoming more concrete for enterprise IoT—particularly via standards-aligned approaches and partnerships that blend terrestrial cellular with satellite. Enterprises increasingly want a single operational model where remote coverage is handled as an overlay to existing cellular estates.

In parallel, operators are pushing “multi-orbit” and roaming narratives, suggesting a future where satellite connectivity is managed more like a policy and profile choice than a separate device class—though enterprise buyers should remain cautious and validate commercial terms, regulatory constraints, and device power budgets.

A practical decision framework for enterprises

Instead of choosing “one technology,” enterprises should segment connectivity into connectivity tiers aligned to product families and operating environments.

Connectivity strategy patterns that work in 2026

1) Build a “two-lane” portfolio: LPWA lane + scalable mid-tier lane

For many enterprises, the winning architecture is a dual strategy:

• LPWA lane (NB-IoT / LTE-M) for low-data, long-life sensor classes.
• Scalable lane (Cat 1 bis today, RedCap tomorrow) for devices whose data needs grow over time, or where global operations and update cycles require more headroom.

This reduces long-term redesign risk and lets you graduate product families without rewriting the whole platform.

2) Treat firmware updates as a first-class connectivity requirement

Security and compliance expectations keep rising, and “secure by design” increasingly implies repeatable update capability. If your product will need frequent patches, LPWA may still work—but you must design update workflows (delta updates, staged rollout, backoff policies, telemetry gating) to avoid bricking devices or exhausting batteries.

3) Plan explicitly for legacy shutdowns and spectrum refarming

2G/3G sunsets remain a forcing function, and they expose weak asset inventories and poor provisioning hygiene. Enterprises should maintain a continuously updated device census (model, modem category, carrier profile, firmware baseline) and include “migration triggers” in contracts and operating plans.

4) Use eSIM/eUICC (and eventually iSIM) to reduce operator lock-in—carefully

Enterprises want flexibility, but the operational reality is nuanced: profile orchestration, bootstrap connectivity, and troubleshooting can add complexity. Treat eSIM/iSIM as a strategic capability when your business model truly depends on multi-operator agility—not as a checkbox.

5) Add NTN as a policy layer for “coverage exceptions”

For many verticals—utilities, logistics, environmental monitoring, maritime—NTN is becoming a realistic overlay option rather than a niche satellite-only device class. Enterprises will increasingly buy “coverage completeness” as part of an IoT connectivity service.

What to watch from 2026 onward

• RedCap commercialisation pace: module availability, operator enablement, and certification programmes will determine how quickly RedCap becomes a default mid-tier choice.
• Satellite IoT standardisation and roaming: partnerships are accelerating, but enterprise buyers should separate pilots from scalable commercial reality.
• Supply-chain geopolitics in modules and chipsets: cellular module market dynamics can influence long-term BOM assumptions.

Bottom line: connectivity strategy is now a lifecycle strategy

In 2026, the most resilient enterprise IoT connectivity strategies are portfolio-based, not technology-singleton decisions. Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT/LTE-M) remains indispensable for low-data fleets. Broadband cellular is still required for high-data devices and gateways. The strategic battleground is the middle: Cat 1 bis and RedCap-style options that balance throughput, cost, and operational scalability—while NTN overlays begin to close the “coverage gaps” that have historically forced expensive bespoke designs.

If there is one enterprise takeaway: choose connectivity the way you choose a supply chain—with redundancy, clear migration paths, and an honest view of operational constraints. The radio spec is only the beginning.

The post Broadband IoT vs. Narrowband IoT: Enterprise Connectivity Strategies for 2026 and Beyond appeared first on IoT Business News.

LoRa Alliance releases 2025 End of Year Report highlighting LoRaWAN’s next growth phase in Massive IoT.

The LoRa Alliance®, the global association behind the open LoRaWAN®standard for low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), today announced the release of its 2025 End of Year Report. The report highlights a defining year in which LoRaWAN moved into its next growth phase, scaling from widespread adoption to becoming a foundational connectivity layer for Massive IoT across utilities, cities, buildings, industry, agriculture, and critical infrastructure worldwide.

Key trends identified in the report include:

• LoRaWAN reached 125 Million deployed devices globally, achieving a 25% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), underscoring accelerating adoption and long-term market momentum.
• Large-scale deployments continue to expand, with multi-million-device networks operated by Alliance members including ZENNER, Actility, Netmore, The Things Industries, and Veolia, alongside rapid growth in high-volume, single-use deployments such as agriculture tracking and safety systems.
• Utilities remain the largest deployment vertical, led by smart water, while LoRaWAN now leads as the top wireless technology for smart building and facility management, reflecting its position as proven infrastructure rather than experimental technology.
• Non-terrestrial network (NTN) LoRaWAN connectivity continues to advance, supported by regulatory progress in Europe and growing collaboration between terrestrial and satellite networks.
• The LoRa Alliance ecosystem expanded to 360 members, reflecting increased industry alignment around LoRaWAN as the leading LPWAN standard for scalable, long-life IoT deployments, with 57 new members joining in 2025 alone, underscoring strong collaboration.
• The LoRa Alliance surpassed 625 certified devices, with continued enhancements to certification, interoperability testing, and self-certification programs to support large device portfolios and faster time-to-market.

The report also highlights continued evolution of the LoRaWAN standard to support scale, efficiency, and regulatory alignment, including new data rates to improve network capacity and battery life, expanded regional spectrum support, and growing interoperability across public, private, community, and satellite-enabled networks.

“2025 marked a clear inflection point for LoRaWAN,” said Alper Yegin, CEO of the LoRa Alliance.

“We are now seeing sustained, exponential growth driven by real-world deployments at scale. LoRaWAN has firmly established itself as essential infrastructure for Massive IoT, complementing cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.”

Additional highlights from the 2025 End of Year Report include:

• The launch of the LoRaWAN Success Story Database, creating the industry’s most comprehensive public repository of real-world LoRaWAN deployments and reinforcing market confidence through proof, not promises.
• Expanded regulatory engagement, including European approval for satellite-to-low-power device communications and continued advocacy to protect critical unlicensed spectrum globally.
• Strong global engagement, with the Alliance’s digital community exceeding 90,000 followers and subscribers, amplifying member successes and accelerating ecosystem visibility worldwide.

Looking ahead, the Alliance will continue focusing on scaling deployments, expanding regulatory alignment, strengthening interoperability, and increasing ecosystem collaboration as LoRaWAN becomes an increasingly integral part of the global connectivity stack, standing alongside Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth.

The post LoRaWAN Enters Next Growth Phase as Massive IoT Scales appeared first on IoT Business News.

Telit Cinterion to Present CMB100 Demo and Advanced eSIM Innovation at MWC Barcelona 2026

• Experience the latest in rapid device prototyping, showcasing the CMB100 embedded modem and NExT eSIM featuring GSMA SGP.32-ready profile download, swapping and deleting for seamless activation testing.
• Explore advanced connectivity solutions that simplify global deployments, network access and data management, with improved visibility, security and control.

Telit Cinterion, an end-to-end IoT solutions enabler, will highlight its newest advancements in connectivity and global SIM activation at MWC Barcelona 2026, taking place March 2 to 5. Attendees visiting stand 5B32 will see how Telit Cinterion helps OEMs prototype and scale mission-critical IoT worldwide with its portfolio of enterprise grade communication modules, embedded connectivity, and AI-powered edge intelligence.

Featured Highlights at MWC Barcelona 2026:

• CMB100 Embedded Modem with NExT eSIM– A live demonstration showing the full eSIM lifecycle, including profile download, swapping, and deletion, paired with temperature and humidity measurements and CMB100 capabilities such as location and radius reporting.

• NExT eSIM Flex – Simplifying global deployments by eliminating the need to manage physical SIM inventory, reducing operational complexity, and accelerating time to market with flexible subscription management and broad carrier interoperability. It enables fast, remote profile updates that keep devices current and compliant as connectivity requirements evolve throughout the device lifecycle.

• Nokia Cognitive Digital Mining Demo: Showcasing the Nokia Cognitive Digital Mining (CDM) platform, powered by Telit Cinterion advanced modules, to deliver real‑time edge intelligence and SLA‑driven multi‑access networking for next‑generation mining operations and mission-critical networks.

• ME310M1 – One of several Telit Cinterion modules incorporated in the Nokia CDM demo and slated for Skylo certification later this year, demonstrates our continued partnership in NTN innovation.

These innovations demonstrate how Telit Cinterion is helping enterprises and operators enhance reliability, reduce operational costs, and deploy next‑generation IoT and edge‑intelligent applications across critical industries.

“At MWC Barcelona, we’re raising the bar for how global IoT is designed, activated, and scaled. Powered by our award‑winning NExT eSIM Flex and fully digital, GSMA SGP.32‑ready eSIM provisioning, OEMs can finally deliver true single‑SKU devices – activated seamlessly in‑factory or instantly at first power‑up in the field,” said Martin Krona, President Services and Solutions at Telit Cinterion.

“Service providers gain unmatched reach and flexibility to launch applications anywhere, while mission-critical industries can rely on our resilient, always on network stack engineered for maximum uptime.”

The post Telit Cinterion Showcases CMB100 and eSIM at MWC 2026 appeared first on IoT Business News.

Latest IoT News Summary

A recent CRN article (Nov. 21, 2025) highlights eight major IoT trends shaping 2025, including AI‑driven innovation, workforce skill gaps, tariff‑related cost pressures, and increasingly complex cybersecurity demands.

Article Summary: “8 Big IoT Trends To Watch in 2025” (CRN)

Source: CRN – 8 Big IoT Trends To Watch In 2025
Direct link: https://www.crn.com/news/internet-of-things/8-big-iot-trends-to-watch-in-2025

Key Points from the Article

• AI Integration Is Accelerating IoT Growth
  Analysts note that the rapid expansion of AI capabilities is driving demand for IoT solutions, but organizations face a skills gap in integrating AI into IoT products and workflows.
• Tariffs and Global Trade Tensions Are Raising Costs
  Evolving tariff strategies—particularly from the Trump administration—are increasing the cost of raw materials, squeezing margins for IoT hardware vendors. IDC reports 60% of enterprises see rising tariffs as a threat to profitability.
• Cybersecurity Remains a Major Vulnerability
  IoT deployments often span multiple locations and device types, creating a complex security landscape. Verizon’s IoT leadership warns that IoT environments require more sophisticated security architectures than traditional IT.
• Collaboration Is Becoming Essential for Industrial IoT
  Executives argue that the future of AI‑powered industrial IoT will depend on ecosystem collaboration—hardware, software, and connectivity providers working together to support hybrid AI models at the edge.

Assessing the Completeness and Narrative of the Article

Strengths of the Article

• Broad yet timely coverage:
  The piece captures the most relevant macro‑forces shaping IoT in 2025—AI, tariffs, security, and ecosystem collaboration. These tend to be the dominant themes in current IoT discourse.
• Expert‑driven insights:
  CRN’s interviews with analysts from IDC, IoT Analytics, and executives from major IoT players add credibility and depth.
• Clear articulation of industry pain points:
  The article accurately reflects the real-world challenges IoT teams face: skills shortages, rising hardware costs, and fragmented security postures.

Where the Article Falls Short

• Limited quantitative data:
  Aside from the IDC statistic on tariffs, the article relies heavily on qualitative commentary. More data—market forecasts, adoption rates, or security incident trends—would strengthen the narrative.
• Underrepresentation of consumer IoT:
  The article focuses almost exclusively on industrial and enterprise IoT. Consumer IoT (smart home, wearables, automotive) is barely mentioned, despite being a major driver of global IoT device volume.
• Missing discussion of regulatory shifts:
  With increasing global scrutiny on data privacy, device certification, and AI governance, regulatory changes are a major IoT trend that deserved more attention.

Overall Opinion

The article is directionally accurate and timely, offering a solid snapshot of the IoT landscape in 2025/2026. However, it feels incomplete as a holistic industry overview. A more balanced narrative would include consumer IoT, regulatory frameworks, and quantitative market data. Still, for enterprise‑focused readers, it provides a valuable and credible summary of the forces shaping IoT’s near future.

Look to future articles on IoT where we hope to fill in some of the gaps in coverage identified. Share with us in the comments what you'd like to see in terms of IoT topics and coverage.

Written/published by AI Quantum Intelligence with the help of AI models.

For decades, the factory floor was a place of rigid automation—machines programmed to do one thing, over and over, in a "black box" environment. But as we move through 2026, a fundamental shift has occurred. The "dumb" robot has been replaced by Physical AI, and the static assembly line has evolved into a living, breathing ecosystem.

This transformation is driven by The Convergence: the seamless integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) as the nervous system, Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the brain, and Robotics as the hands. Together, these technologies aren't just making factories faster; they are making them "thrive" through self-healing systems and collaborative human-robot environments.

1. The Nervous System: IoT and the Data Goldmine

At the heart of the modern factory lies the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Thousands of sensors now monitor everything from the vibration of a bearing to the temperature of a soldering iron in real-time.

• Real-Time Transparency: Unlike traditional manufacturing where issues were discovered after a batch was ruined, IoT provides a "glass factory" view.
• Edge Computing: In 2026, we’ve moved beyond sending all data to the cloud. Critical decisions are made at the "Edge" — directly on the factory floor—reducing latency to milliseconds.

2. The Brain: Predictive Maintenance and Agentic AI

Data is useless without intelligence. This is where Machine Learning (ML) and Agentic AI step in. We are moving from predictive maintenance (telling you when it might break) to prescriptive action (fixing it autonomously).

The "Self-Correcting" Factory: In 2026, if an AI agent detects a 0.5% drift in a robotic arm's precision, it doesn't just send an alert. It cross-references the production schedule, identifies a gap, orders a replacement part via the digital supply chain, and reroutes the workload to a backup line—all before a human operator even notices the drift.

The Impact of AI on Downtime (2026 Projections): Metric | Improvement with AI | Unplanned Downtime | Reduced by 35–45% | Maintenance Costs | Reduced by 25–30% | Equipment Lifespan | Increased by 20%

3. The Hands: The Rise of Humanoids and Cobots

The physical manifestation of this convergence is the new generation of Collaborative Robots (Cobots) and Industrial Humanoids. As seen at CES 2026, companies like Hyundai and Boston Dynamics are deploying robots like Atlas not to replace humans, but to "Partner Human Progress."

• Human-Centered Design: These robots are equipped with tactile sensors and 360-degree vision, allowing them to work safely alongside humans without safety cages.
• Versatility: Unlike old-school robots fixed to the floor, Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) navigate complex warehouses, picking and transporting goods with the dexterity of a human worker.

4. The Digital Twin: Simulation Before Execution

One of the most powerful tools in the “AI and Quantum Intelligence” toolkit is the Digital Twin. Before a single physical bolt is turned, the entire factory is built in a virtual environment.

• "Simulate-then-Procure": Manufacturers now use high-fidelity simulations to test "what-if" scenarios. What if we increase line speed by 10%? What if the supply of a specific resin is delayed?
• Virtual Commissioning: Using tools like NVIDIA Omniverse or Siemens Digital Twin Builder, engineers can train AI models in a virtual world so that when the physical robot is switched on, it already "knows" its environment.

Conclusion: Together We Learn, Together We Thrive

The convergence of AI, IoT, and Robotics is not just a technical milestone; it is a cultural one. It represents a shift from "man vs. machine" to a collaborative era where technology handles the dangerous, repetitive, and mundane, freeing humans to focus on strategy, design, and innovation.

As we continue to share these learning resources, remember that the goal of a smart factory is not just output—it’s the creation of a resilient, sustainable, and human-centric future.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What exactly is the "Convergence" in modern manufacturing? A: It is the seamless merging of three distinct technologies: IoT (the nervous system), AI (the brain), and Robotics (the hands). When these work together, they move the factory from a collection of isolated machines to a living ecosystem that can learn and adapt in real-time.

Q: How does AI actually reduce factory downtime? A: Through a process called Prescriptive Maintenance. Instead of waiting for a machine to break, AI monitors vibrations and temperatures. If it detects an anomaly, it can automatically adjust the machine’s load or schedule a repair during a planned break, reducing unplanned downtime by up to 45%.

Q: What is a Digital Twin and why is it important? A: Think of a Digital Twin as a "flight simulator" for a factory. It is a virtual 1:1 model of your physical equipment. By running simulations in the digital twin first, companies can find errors and optimize workflows without ever risking damage to real machines or stopping production.

Written/published by Kevin Marshall with the help of AI models (AI Quantum Intelligence).

But a quieter, more profound revolution is happening concurrently. It is the fusion of AI with the Internet of Things (IoT). This is not AI in a chat window; this is AI in our homes, our cities, our factories, and our bodies.

This "AIoT" — the "Artificial Intelligence of Things" — is the network that connects and controls smart grids, autonomous supply chains, intelligent home appliances, and city-wide sensor networks. While the promised business case is one of total efficiency, predictive maintenance, and seamless convenience, the potential threats are woven into the very fabric of our physical reality. They are less about what we think and more about how we live.

Here are some of the oncoming threats as we advance in this new domain, and the profound challenge of measuring innovation against the real cost to humanity.

1. The New Economic Fragility: Beyond Job Displacement

While we discuss AI replacing white-collar jobs, AIoT is aimed squarely at the physical and logistical backbone of our economies.

• Systemic Risk as a Business Model: The primary "value" of AIoT is connecting disparate systems. An intelligent port connects to an autonomous trucking network, which connects to a smart warehouse, which connects to a regional power grid. This hyper-efficiency creates unprecedented systemic fragility.
• Example: In the past, a cyberattack might breach a company's database. In an AIoT-enabled world, a single vulnerability (like a botnet) could be exploited to halt a nation's entire food distribution network, shut down its power grid, or cause physical accidents by hacking fleets of autonomous vehicles. The financial cost is no longer just data theft; it's a complete, physical economic shutdown.
• Targeted Labour Displacement: The jobs at risk here are not just repetitive, but physical. AI-powered sensors that predict equipment failure will replace maintenance and inspection crews. Fully autonomous warehouses (like those already in use) eliminate the need for most pickers, packers, and forklift operators. This creates a parallel wave of unemployment that is distinct from the knowledge-work disruption of generative AI.
• Data-Driven Financial Exclusion: Your financial well-being may soon be tied to the data streamed from your "smart" life.
• Example: Imagine your car insurance premium being calculated in real-time based on AI's judgment of your driving, not just your accident record. Or, more insidiously, a smart appliance reporting your energy use patterns, which an algorithm correlates with "financial distress," lowering your credit score without your knowledge. This creates a new, opaque class of algorithmic poverty.

2. The Atrophy of Human Competence: The Threat to Learning

The core promise of AIoT is a "frictionless" life, where your needs are anticipated and met before you even register them. The threat here is not to what you learn, but to your capacity to learn.

• "Cognitive Offloading" as a Lifestyle: Research has already shown that over-reliance on AI tools can lead to "cognitive offloading," which correlates negatively with critical thinking. When this moves from a search engine to your entire environment, the impact is profound.
• Example: A smart kitchen doesn't just give you a recipe; it guides you step-by-step, tells you when to stir, and manages the temperature. The human is reduced to a pair of hands. This prevents the user from learning the principles of cooking, such as heat management or flavor combinations.
• The Loss of Practical Resilience: When our homes automatically manage their own energy, our cars drive themselves, and our environments are perfectly optimized for comfort, we lose the basic skills of self-sufficiency. This "friction" is where competence, problem-solving, and resilience are built. A society that offloads all practical skills to an AI network becomes dangerously dependent and fragile, unable to cope when the system inevitably fails.

3. The Erosion of the Social & Private Sphere

When the "computer" is the room you are in, the concepts of privacy and autonomy are fundamentally challenged.

• The End of Privacy as a Concept: This is not about your browser history. This is about ubiquitous, passive surveillance. Smart speakers listening to your emotional tone, smart city cameras using gait and facial analysis, and smart thermostats that know when you are home and when you are not.
• Example: This creates a powerful "chilling effect." When all public and private spaces are monitored, it changes how we interact. We may become less willing to engage in dissent, have difficult private conversations, or express unpopular opinions, leading to a sterile, conformist, and less democratic public sphere.
• Automated "Nudging" and Social Control: The AIoT world is not just a passive listener; it is an actor. It is designed to "nudge" your behavior—ostensibly for your own good.
• Example: Your smart fridge might "nudge" you away from sugary snacks. Your smart city's public transit system might "nudge" you to a different route to manage crowd flow. But who sets the rules? This technology gives its owners (corporations or governments) a direct tool to manipulate human behavior at a population scale, optimizing for profit or social conformity, not individual autonomy.
• The Decline of Social Skill: As IoT devices mediate more of our interactions, we risk a further decline in face-to-face communication. This can lead to a documented reduction in the ability to read nonverbal cues, practice empathy, and navigate the complex, un-optimized friction of human relationships.

The Measurement Dilemma: How to Value a Human?

This brings us to one final, critical question: How do we measure the business case for innovation against the real cost to human needs?

The terrifying truth is that we currently can't—because our models are dangerously one-sided.

The "business case" is easy to quantify. It is measured in:

• $ Dollars saved in labour costs.
• % Percentage points of efficiency gained.
• # Number of hours saved in a supply chain.

The "human cost" is abstract and notoriously difficult to quantify. What is the dollar value of:

• A population's critical thinking skills?
• The concept of personal privacy?
• The resilience of a community?
• The feeling of human autonomy?

Because we cannot easily measure these human costs, they are valued at zero in a traditional ROI calculation. The business case always wins.

To fix this, we must fundamentally change our "balance sheet." We need to move beyond simple ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) checklists and create new, mandatory metrics for "human-centric" innovation.

1. Systemic Risk Audits: Businesses and governments deploying large-scale AIoT systems must be required to model and insure against the catastrophic cost of a systemic, cascading failure. This gives a hard financial number to "fragility."
2. Cognitive Impact Assessments: Just as we have environmental impact assessments, we should demand "cognitive impact" studies. Does this product automate a skill and promote passive dependence (cognitive offloading), or does it augment the user and build new skills?
3. "Autonomy & Privacy" Scores: We need a simple, readable score for all smart devices, much like a nutrition label. It would clearly state:
• What data is collected?
• What data is necessary for it to function?
• How is this data used to "nudge" you?
• Can you fully opt out and retain core functionality?

Ultimately, the true "business case" for any innovation cannot be separated from the stability and well-being of the society it serves. An innovation that generates billions in profit but creates a fragile, dependent, and socially isolated population is not an asset. It is a long-term liability, and the bill will, eventually, come due.

Written/published by Kevin Marshall with the help of AI models (AI Quantum Intelligence)

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