The new buzzword in the wireless industry is 5G and it is often used in relation to the Internet of Things (IoT). This has contributed to some confusion as IoT has been broadly gaining traction in the “things” market leveraging a wide range of connectivity options, including Cellular, LoRaWAN® and Wi-Fi, a pattern that looks sure to continue. With 5G expected to rapidly become a reality through the deployment of initial networks by Cellular operators around the globe, we believe clear positioning is required to allow enterprises and consumers to drive the IoT market to its full potential.

There is little doubt that 5G will play a major role in our society’s future. As a veteran of the telecommunications industry who has developed generations of hardware and software, I have a deep appreciation for what 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is doing with 5G, and am excited to see how it will change lives in the years to come.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a truly massive phenomenon. Revenue numbers from market projections for IoT are staggering - Market Watch predicts that IoT will be worth $2.488 trillion by 2022.

Last week I attended the National Facilities Management & Technology Conference and Exhibition (NFMT) in Baltimore, Maryland. I was quite impressed with the amount of interest generated by the solutions for facilities management being demonstrated at the show based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology). The LoRa Alliance™ had a strong presence with demonstrations by MachineQ, Microshare, Tektelic, and Semtech. In addition to the LoRa Alliance exhibitors, Haxiot was also on hand in its own booth to demonstrate its solutions. Facilities management is an industry that typically operates on tight margins and is therefore very interested in any solution that can save on supply usage, maintenance or efficient routing of resources.

Mobile World Congress, one of the year’s biggest exhibitions of cutting edge wireless technology, recently took place this last February in Barcelona, drawing hundreds of industry-leading companies from across the globe. With so many events taking place over the conference’s five-day span, it was easy to get lost in the blur of demonstrations and announcements. While the Semtech booth was abuzz with fans of our leading LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology) for the Internet of Things (IoT) eager to catch a demo, one conference event stood out to me as one of LoRa Technology’s biggest success stories at MWC, the 10th Innovation World Cup.

Latin America’s Internet of Things (IoT) market is expected to be worth $44.4 billion in 2019, which is a jump of almost triple from $14.2 billion in 2013. Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology) is leading the charge to enable solution providers and customers in Latin America to realize this value by leveraging LoRa Technology’s open LoRaWAN™ protocol, vibrant ecosystem, flexible deployment models, and low power, long range capabilities. In this blog I’m excited to share some examples of the innovation the LoRaWAN ecosystem in Latin America is producing, and the value that these solutions are delivering to customers.

Semtech was back again at Embedded World this year showcasing our leading technology for the Internet of Things (IoT), LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology). Embedded World is recognized as the leading international trade fair for embedded and system technologies and attended by the world’s leading silicon suppliers, as well as a huge ecosystem of developers, software companies and manufacturers. Semtech’s booth was again packed during the three days in Nuremburg with customer meetings spilling over from our meeting rooms onto the main hall, even into the nearby lounge areas.

I have just returned from Mobile World Congress (MWC), the most anticipated mobile industry event of the year with 109,000 visitors from 198 countries, and I’m in awe of the pace of innovation in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, as well as the speed at which technologies are rapidly evolving to market-ready solutions. This observation could not be more true for Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology).

With the support of a vast and rapidly growing ecosystem, more and more companies are developing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology). There are hundreds of LoRa-based products and services currently available in Semtech’s Catalog in the LoRa Community™. Additionally, several members of the LoRaWAN-based ecosystem offer online catalogs full of LoRa-based solutions. Find a list of catalogs within the #ShopLoRaWAN blog.

Earlier this month in Amsterdam, The Things Network hosted The Things Conference, a gathering of thousands of developers from all around the globe who develop Internet of Things (IoT) solutions with Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology). I have participated in many developer conferences over the years, and I must say the energy at last week’s event reminded me of the days of mobile and embedded device conferences, where you could tell it was really a show for developers by developers. The sheer range of LoRa-based solutions available on the market today on display at the conference demonstrated a sharp contrast to last year’s event which focused more on the promise of LoRa Technology for the IoT. While there were many compelling market trajectory stories and business presentations that demonstrated the LoRaWAN™ protocol is truly here to stay, if there was one single theme from the show it was this: LoRa Technology is a developer’s platform and its time is here… now.