Whilst a total of 48 commercial Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and LTE-Mobile (LTE-M) had been launched worldwide as of the end of April, according to the GSMA, Sri Lanka’s Dialog Axiata and Mobitel among leading 13 Global operators that deployed Mobile IOT solutions, including all of China’s big three operators - China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

Accordingly a recent report by TelecomAsia said that South Korea’s KT, LG Uplus, Singapore’s M1, Australia’s Telstra, Sri Taiwan’s Far EasTone and Chunghwa Telecom, Japan’s KDDI, Thailand’s True Corp and Vodafone Group have also adopted the technology.

The report said that NB-IoT deployments are currently a lot more common than LTE-M, although some operators including Singtel and Australia’s Telstra have deployed both technologies. In a new report, the GSMA noted that NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies will be an integral part of 5G, and are expected to fulfill the 5G LPWA requirements. The technologies will coexist with other 5G components. The 3GPP is working to allow LTE-M and NB-IoT to be placed directly in a 5G new radio frequency band, and is investigating options for the 5G core network to support LTE-M and NB-IoT radio access networks.