Verizon Now Offers LTE for IoT Devices

Verizon (VZ) has taken additional steps to expand its Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio. 

The telecommunications giant this week announced the availability of the world’s first Cat1 LTE network features for IoT, along with new tools for its ThingSpace IoT applications platform that enable developers “to quickly and easily connect their devices to the Internet.”

So what does the news mean for Verizon and its customers?

The new features will allow Verizon customers to move from 2G speeds to 10Mbps with 4G LTE with the potential to reduce the costs and power consumption associated with their devices, according to Verizon.

In addition, Verizon said its new ThingSpace tools enable developers to publish data from Internet-ready mobile devices and create real-time dashboards and control panels visualizing that device data.

“Our goal is to help accelerate market adoption for IoT by making the ecosystem as accessible as possible for developers to bring their solutions to market,” Mark Bartolomeo, Verizon’s vice president of IoT connected solutions, said in a prepared statement. “We are providing this largely underserved market with the tools needed for endless IoT solutions to be deployed at scale.”

Expect the demand for IoT devices to increase over the next few years as well.

Technology research firm Gartner has predicted 6.4 billion connected “things” will be in use next year, up 30 percent from 2015. 

Gartner also said it anticipates 5.5 million new things will be connected every day in 2016, and 20.8 billion connected things will be in use by 2020.

What are your thoughts on the IoT? Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].