The first steps in determining you IoT use-case is choosing a communication technology. These days you have many options including the new ‘IoT networks’ like LTE-M, NB-IoT, Sigfox and LoRa. Not making it any easier for business leaders and product managers to decide.
Consider this
No decision is perfect since they all come with pros and cons. That’s why you need to focus on what is the right choice for your project.
Cellular technologies like 2G, 3G, LTE are far superior in terms of global coverage, bandwidth, and latency. These technologies are around for a long time and are secure from the start. The only negative aspects are often power consumption and data charges.
Low-power IoT cases this is rapidly changing with the appearance of LTE-catM. An evolution on the current LTE networks. Devices connect to LTE networks with chips that are cheaper to produce since they are half-duplex and have a narrower bandwidth. It can lower power consumption using a ‘deep sleep’ mode and data costs are less.
If ultra low-power is the most important factor in your use case, there are other alternatives. LoRa and Sigfox use license-free radio frequency bands to operate separate networks. This networks only support tiny data packages suitable for IoT sensors. On the business side, the hardware is not yet mass produced to reach great prices. Also subscriptions for the networks are not more cost-efficient than cellular subscriptions.
Learn from the past
All these new technologies are great but it has to fit your business case. The legacy technology of the 2G networks is not future proof but still in great demand in certain parts of the world. This can offer great opportunities for IoT using the cheap and reliable 2G products out there in the market. Keep track of the 2G shutdown and you might have a great cost-efficient option to consider.
Bottom line
When choosing a technology for your business case, consider all options and technical aspects. Don’t fall in the trap of always considering new is the best option and keep and an open mind to find the best match for your project.
About Olivia Wireless
If there is one hype about the Internet of Things it’s that, we’ll have billions of new devices connected to the internet. To make this big promise happen a lot of businesses, and developers need to find a connectivity provider that finds their needs. Existing connectivity providers have antiquated ordering, billing and reporting, non-existent APIs. Waiting weeks to get started with lengthy processes is Keeping businesses from building IoT solutions.
Olivia’s connects businesses of all sizes:
- Get to market fast with straightforward pay-as-you-go pricing in 63+ countries and the freedom to scale up or down with no upfront costs or contracts.
- Dedicated Experts to support from connecting the first device to helping with scaling. Everyone on your team Olivia is dedicated to keeping you happy and moving.
- Full control over SIM Cards and data consumption. Limit usage automatically and protect SIMs with Theft protection.
- Send Machine to Machine (M2M) commands using the SMS transport protocol.
Olivia enables business around the world to connect devices immediately. Connecting a device to the internet requires a subscriber identification module (SIM), known from the Mobile phone. Olivia provides IoT SIM cards that give them access to global connectivity in over 63 countries at low costs. The platform gives full control of the SIM cards. For developers Olivia provide the platform functionalities via API’s.
