AT&T, Verizon, Intel Poised to Lead U.S. M2M Surge

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications is set to have solid growth over the next five years.

That’s according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets, which says the M2M connections market will be valued at nearly $35.2 billion by 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of almost 11.6 percent between now and then.

M2M connections consist of various wired and wireless technologies that enable different machines of the same type to connect with each other. M2M has widespread industrial uses that partners are beginning to realize. It is being used extensively in the utilities sector for smart electricity distribution and conservation, in the automotive sector – think telemetry technology in cars – and in health care for remote patient monitoring.

Automotive and transportation is expected to be the biggest market for M2M connections between 2015 and 2020, followed by security and surveillance.

The report, which is broken down by various geographies, wired and wireless technology, says that Wi-Fi is expected to be the dominating technology for M2M over the next five years. Among cellular M2M connections, 3G is expected to be the most common type, with 4G connections projected to grow at the fastest rate for obvious reasons – speed, better security, etc.

The Americas is the largest market for M2M connections, but MarketsandMarkets expects the Asia Pacific region will surge into the lead by 2020.

In the U.S., the report names AT&T, Verizon, Intel and Jasper Wireless as major M2M industry players. In other parts of the world, China Mobile, Telefonica (Spain), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Gemalto (The Netherlands), Sierra Wireless (Canada) and Telit PLC (U.K.) get props from the market researcher.

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