Government endpoint and comms IoT sales to reach $21bn in 2022, Gartner says

More than 50 per cent of spending will be focused on outdoor surveillance equipment

The global government Internet of Things (IoT) endpoint electronics and communications market will total $21.3bnin 2022, according to Gartner.

This represents a 22 per cent jump from a forecasted total of $17.5bn (€14.7bn) in 2021.

"Local governments worldwide are increasingly using IoT technology to monitor their infrastructure and assets more effectively and improve citizens' safety and living environments, including controlling the spread of Covid-19 and checking quarantine compliance," said Kay Sharpington, senior principal research analyst at Gartner.

"In addition, the falling costs of devices is contributing to the financial viability of projects that utilise outdoor surveillance cameras and city asset tracking."

Where will governments spend?

Gartner claims more than 50 per cent of governments endpoint and communications service spending will be on outdoor surveillance to improve public health and safety, totaling $12bn (€10bn).

"Over the past year, the role of cameras has expanded into checking for social distancing and mask wearing to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as increased use for contactless parking management," Sharpington added.

"Their adoption will continue to increase at a different pace across regions as data privacy regulations vary across countries."

The analyst went on to say that, for example, the Chinese government does not have the same restrictions as Western Europe and North America, therefore it will be a key contributor to growth.

Gartner also claims that, as 5G is well-suited to video applications due to its high data throughput, outdoor surveillance cameras will represent over 75 per cent of the government's global 5G connections through 2022.

Moreover, the analyst firm estimates that 39 per cent of global government endpoints will be shipped with a low-power wide-area (LPWA) interface in 2022, up from 26 per cent in 2020.