A surge in 5G RedCap highlights the growing influence of 5G technologies on IoT, according to a report from Omdia.

The market watcher forecasts that 5G RedCap will hit 66% CAGR to reach 963.5 million connections by 2030, showing the industry’s increasing readiness for RedCap and eRedCap.

As 4G networks begin their gradual phase-out over the next decade, RedCap and its enhanced counterpart, eRedCap, are poised to take over from current LTE Cat-1 to Cat-4 devices. The latest 3GPP Release 18 introduces eRedCap, designed to offer further reduced capabilities and lower data rate requirements, making it suitable for cost-effective IoT applications.

Omdia predicts this evolution will follow the path of RedCap, but with a slight delay of a year or two, helping bridge the gap as industries transition from 4G to 5G technologies.

“5G RedCap was specifically designed for IoT applications and, in just a year since the first module launches, we’ve already seen small-scale deployments and trials begin to take shape,” said Alexander Thompson, senior IoT analyst at Omdia. “We expect 5G eRedCap to follow a similar path addressing use cases that demand reduced complexity and lower performance thresholds.”

The report examines the ongoing hardware launches and global trials, reflecting growing interest in 5G RedCap. Companies across various sectors are beginning to deploy this technology, anticipating its wide-scale adoption in the coming years.

A key differentiator between 5G and its predecessor is the wealth of innovative use cases it has enabled since its launch in 2019. The report delves into the top ten IoT use cases where 5G has made the most impact. The report evaluates these cases based on market impact, technical complexity, implementation timeframe, revenue opportunity and vendor ecosystem readiness.

The report (omdia.tech.informa.com/om122934/5g-in-iot-status-and-emerging-use-cases) outlines the current progress of 5G Standalone (SA) rollouts and their significance in enabling large numbers of IoT connections. It also discusses the monetisation of 5G network APIs, the status of private 5G networks and their role within the 5G network landscape and the anticipated development of network slicing.

See omdia.tech.informa.com/advance-your-business/internet-of-things for more information.