How Telecom Helps Scale the Internet of Things

Advances in telecommunications are lowering latency, increasing bandwidth, and accelerating data transmission rates without sacrificing battery life, exchange speed, or performance. This is helping scale the Internet of Things (IoT). Here’s how that benefits users.

IoT & Telecom Benefits

#1: LoRaWAN Supports Long-Distance Connectivity 

A long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) is a protocol that connects internet-connected nodes over long distances while reducing power use. It’s ideal for use cases like asset tracking and smart cities because it joins objects in hard-to-reach locations. The low-frequency radio waves penetrate obstacles like trees and buildings better than high-frequency waves. 

Alper Yegin, the chief executive officer of the LoRa Alliance, believes long-range connectivity defines LoRaWAN. In an interview, he said it reaches roughtly 375 miles in line-of-sight conditions and penetrates buildings and urban environments with ease. 

Even better, Yegin said a LoRaWAN base station is now as affordable as a Wi-Fi access point. In addition to providing connectivity over vast distances, it effectively democratizes network access. 

Almost anyone can afford to deploy one of these systems, which helps the IoT scale. This is a cost-efficient, accessible approach for transmitting data with internet-connected nodes.

#2: Deploying IoT Devices at the Edge Reduces Costs 

With edge networking, firms move resources closer to the internet-connected objects that need them. This cloud-based solution relocates computing tasks, moving them from centralized data centers to end users. 

The closer they are, the less network resources they waste. This approach optimizes performance while preventing high latency and transmission bottlenecks.

In addition to saving networking resources and reducing data center strain, businesses make more money. They increase customer retention by offering better service, which enables greater revenue generation. 

These savings open up investment opportunities, creating room in the budget for scaling internal IoT solutions. 

#3: 5G Network Integration Enables Ultralow Latency 

Although telecommunications companies have experienced high periods of revenue growth cycles in recent decades, collective growth is lagging. 

The 2022 State of Customer Churn in Telecom report revealed customer loyalty rates dropped by 22 percent post-pandemic. Around 92 percent of the people displeased with service quality turned to a competitor. 

The IoT’s high device density and constant information transmissions necessitate high speeds and low latencies. Customers who receive these are more likely to stay. Telecommunications firms that embrace fifth-generation (5G) networking technology can achieve both. 

Integration with 5G networks enables ultralow latency performance, helping IoT scale. Service providers don’t have to sacrifice speed or latency, incentivizing them to invest in this solution. 

Adoption is already rapidly increasing since 5G is 100 times faster than 4G. Although implementation is concentrated in major urban areas, it is spreading to more rural ones.

#4: Satellite Networks Provide End-to-End Connectivity 

A satellite network is a specialized ecosystem that uses satellites orbiting the planet to provide end-to-end connectivity. It lets internet-enabled nodes seamlessly connect and exchange information regardless of their location. Whether someone lives in a remote area or is traveling, they don’t have to worry about losing connectivity. 

Roaming capabilities allow these items to function smoothly even as they move networks. This way, telecommunications customers avoid dead zones, network congestion, and roaming charges. 

This enhanced connectivity facilitates packet exchanges over long distances and ensures transfers are seamless, supporting large-scale systems. 

#5: NB-IoT Helps Preserve IoT Devices’ Battery Life

Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) is a standards-based low power wide area network (LPWAN) technology that was purpose-built for internet-enabled devices. It was designed for low-power, low-bandwidth, low-cost indoor connections. Its ultra-narrowband feature enables numerous networks to coexist by preventing interference, which improves scalability.

This LPWAN technology lets devices operate in mobile carrier networks. It uses a narrow bandwidth of 200 kilohertz, meaning nodes can transmit an extremely limited amount of information over an internet connection within a specific time frame. Even though their speeds are slow, capped at around 250 kilobits per second, it preserves their battery life. 

#6: LTE-M Also Preserves IoT Devices’ Battery Life

Long-term evolution machine type communication (LTE-M) is similar to NB-IoT. It supports a 10-year battery life, depending on battery size. Extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) — a power-saving feature — makes this capacity possible by supporting a longer paging cycle. Nodes can enter a long, power-saving “sleep” mode when not in use. 

In telecommunications, a paging cycle is the periodic, scheduled interval at which the network transmits to inform internet-connected items to wake. While it typically lasts 2.56 seconds, eDRX extends it to minutes or even hours. In an idle state, they can last 44 minutes with LTE-M and up to three hours with NB-IoT. 

#7: Advances Make Finding IoT Connections Easier 

Ivo Rook, a senior executive at the German telecommunications company 1NCE, believes the IoT is reaching an inflection point where finding connections will become as simple as plugging a cord into an outlet. 

However, he said complexity and scale benefits are different for every application and vertical. The problem is the wide range of networking options.

The numerous networking options for internet-enabled technologies are both good and bad. While being able to choose between NB-IoT, LoRaWAN, LTE-M, and more is beneficial, the market is complex. 

Vendors should carefully consider their priorities to make scalability possible. If standardization happens, the industry could reach this inflection point sooner rather than later. 

Telecom Advances Improve IoT Scalability 

As the ecosystem of internet-enabled nodes expands, telecommunications providers must find a way to further increase bandwidth and decrease latency without sacrificing battery life or performance. Advances like NB-IoT, 5G, and LoRaWAN are the first steps toward this future.