The Industrial Internet of Things is mostly still in waiting mode. While there are operational solutions, it is only with 5G that integrated IoT services for the data-driven Industry 4.0 era and all of the smart manufacturing concepts will really pick up speed. According to current forecasts, mobile edge computing solutions will flourish by 2022 at the latest, with the broad commercial availability of 5G networks.

According to the analysts at Gartner , only about 10% of company-generated data is currently being created and processed outside of a traditional central data center or cloud. Edge computing is expected to thoroughly change this, possibly reaching a share of 50% by 2020. For example, as data processing, analytics, monitoring, etc. take place more and more on the "edge" of the network (rather than in centralized data centers), increasingly accurate fine-tuning becomes feasible in real time.

Telecommunication providers will be among the first to profit from this development: as service providers, they will host edge locations worldwide, and will connect them to the linked devices. This makes them more than relevant as strategic suppliers to machine manufacturers and manufacturing companies. It is also becoming apparent that the telcos are also supporting the "IoT momentum" with their own service offerings and platforms.