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The IoT FUD factor: Debunking LPWA myths

There currently seems to be more noise than fact surrounding the IoT these days, as companies try to understand the new and evolving LPWA market. One of the biggest fallacies is that licensed solutions equals secure and reliable, while unlicensed means the opposite.

At a recent trade show, I was on a panel with a friend from a large Mobile Network Operator (MNO), who said—in essence—that unlicensed solutions would never work because enterprises need managed services and security. OK, let’s take on that “challenge.” Unlicensed LoRaWAN, for example, has encryption at the device, network and application level. It uses AES 128 encryption to ensure that end user data is encrypted from the device to the application. 

The best LPWA platform companies also employ addition security features to protect against a variety of nefarious tactics. Companies like Gemalto offer security solutions such as its trusted key manager. Companies like Nokia offer complete LoRaWAN managed network services. Those examples alone classify the MNO’s statement as a “pants on fire” marketing story, says Lawrence Latham, managing director, Everynet.

Some say unlicensed means unreliable. All of us have lived through periods of unreliability. In the U.S., nearly a decade ago, the first of Verizon’s, “Can you hear me now?” commercials started. Verizon was publicly touting its network was the only “licensed spectrum” network that was reliable.

Many people had Verizon at the time, and the marketing catchphrase was often mocked as users stared blankly at their phones after hearing the three beeps signaling another dropped call. This was only eight years ago, yet even today, when networks are so much more dense, cellular certainly still has its dead spots.

Then there’s noise. Unlicensed solutions employ a variety of techniques to deal with noise, such as adaptive date rates, channel switching, acknowledgments, and so on. And just like with traditional cellular networks, LPWA solutions rely on network densification for optimal coverage.

Unlicensed LPWA has had a several-year head start and today employs a layered network densification approach with readily available base stations for towers, strand-mount, industrial, and home—top-down and inside-out coverage. How, exactly, will that work with 3GPP?

Also, it’s not like 3GPP is just one simple standard. Would you like NB-IoT or LTE-M? NB-IoT pilots are just in the beginning stages, and LTE-M announcements have been made and initial deployments have been announced. It’s hard to validate the long-term cost implications for large-scale rollouts.

It would seem to be in the best interests of 3GPP to cooperate with unlicensed LPWA rather than try to compete with it. In fact, 3GPP does have an unlicensed working group. What’s the old saying, “Standards are great, everyone should have their own”?

The bottom line: Generalisations such as “unlicensed is unreliable” should be easily dismissed as marketing hype by groups touting the alternative solutions, but somehow, they persist.

That’s why it’s important for companies incorporating IoT solutions into their businesses to peel back the marketing layers and see with their own eyes if solutions meet their needs. Many will find that unlicensed LPWA checks off all of the boxes they need to make their IoT projects succeed.

The author of this blog is Lawrence Latham, managing director, Everynet

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