Why Did EDGE Tumble Over the Edge in the M2M Market?

Author: Sam Lucero, Practice Director, M2M & Embedded

Published: 30 Jul 2010

EDGE is considered a 2.5G GSM-family cellular air interface standard, used by wireless operators in the same frequency bands as GSM/GPRS, but increasing the spectral efficiency – and thereby reducing the costs – of communications. As the mainstream cellular industry has shifted from 2G to 3G technologies, ABI Research and some others in the industry feel that EDGE would be a likely beneficiary in the M2M market as a relatively low-cost alternative to 3G WCDMA (and associated HSPA) technology. After several years of EDGE cellular embedded modules shipments failing to gain traction in the M2M market, however, it is clear that the market has largely by-passed the EDGE standard. Why did some in the industry, including ABI Research, feel that EDGE was a likely successor to GSM/GPRS in M2M? And why has the industry largely opted to ignore EDGE?

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