5G will hit the IoT market in late 2020

5G will make its first appearance in the IoT market in late 2020 and struggle for years before it can become a mainstream technology, says a new report from Berg Insight.

According to the IoT analyst firm, the first 5G cellular IoT modules will become available for developers this year.

While this allows early adopters to create the first IoT devices based on the 5G standard, the report also states that it will take some times for 5G to become popular in the context of IoT.

The technology will account for just 3% of the total installed base of cellular IoT devices by 2023, predicts Berg Insight.

“5G still has some way to go before it can become a mainstream technology for cellular IoT”, said Tobias Ryberg, principal analyst and author of the report.

Just like 4G when it was first introduced, the initial version of 5G is mostly about improving network performance and data capacity, he added.

“This is only relevant for a smaller subset of high-bandwidth cellular IoT applications like connected cars, security cameras and industrial routers. The real commercial breakthrough will not happen until the massive machine type communication (mMTC) use case has been implemented in the standard,” explained Ryberg.

The report also identifies homeland security as an area where 5G cellular IoT can have a major impact already in the early 2020s.

“5G enables the deployment of high-density networks of AI-supported security cameras to monitor anything form security-classified facilities to national borders or entire cities”, said Ryberg.

“How this technology is used and by whom is likely to become one of the most controversial issues in the next decade.”

In a separate report, Berg Insight predicts the global number of cellular IoT subscribers will reach to 9 billion in 2023 from 1.2 billion in 2018, largely driven by the “momentum scale” of deployment in China.