Record increase of M2M SIM Card in 2016 in France. If the SigFox, LoRa (and coming NB-IOT) technologies participate the the IOT (Internet of Things) hype, it is already a reality for years. Check those figures for France, that can be easily extrapolated to other countries…
The ARCEP (French Telecom Regulation Authority – Autorité de Régulation des Communications et des Postes) has published in May key figures related to the number of M2M (Machine to Machine – another word (vintage !) – for IOT – Internet of Things) deployed in France. There are – by 31st March 2017 – 12,7 Million M2M SIM Cards used in France. This represents an increase of 2,9 Million SIM Cards in 1 year ! 30% net increase in 1 year.
The Internet of Things (IOT) is all about optimising existing processes, develop new opportunities or invent new business models. Connectivity is just a small element in the equation. It is all about interacting with objects (machines, humans, environment) to optimise Enterprises business processes (Industry 4.0), or make the life of people / citizens better.
All depending on the business needs (local / global coverage / roaming), the budget for devices, the availability of them (LoRa, SigFox and NB-IOT devices are not yet largely available as commercial / cheap products), the expected technical requirements (battery vs wired electricity), etc. M2M, LoRa, SigFox, NB-IOT, Bluetooth, WIFI, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Thread are all connectivity options that should be investigated.
More M2M/IOT in France figures here.
