Some operators and vendors insist that, once the 3GPP’s Narrowband-IoT standard is widely deployed, from late 2016, the specialized LPWA (low power wide area) networks will disappear into a niche. There will certainly be consolidation – there are too many platforms for all of them to survive in the public access mainstream, though some may hang on in private networks. But if the LPWA players can come together to support some common frameworks and allow interoperability, there is a strong possibility that some of the technologies which are being deployed now – LoRa, Sigfox, Telensa and so on – will have a long life, and perhaps gain a migration path into future 5G platforms. As in broadband data and even…