There was a hint of schadenfreude among mobile operators last week when it emerged that Vodafone, probably the loudest exponent of the NB-IoT low power LTE standard, had missed some of its deployment deadlines for the technology, and now risks being overtaken by Deutsche Telekom in the important market of Germany. More serious than MNO build-out races, however, is the question of why Vodafone’s progress has been slower than expected – and more broadly, how many MNOs will actually manage to find a profitable business case for IoT networks. The operator’s own comments suggest it may not be seeing sufficient demand for low power wide area network (LPWAN) services such as wireless smart metering or smart city applications, to justify…