Smart meters are becoming more widely used. These are devices that automatically collect meter data with LPWA long-distance wireless communication for the amount used of electricity, gas, water, and other services as the smartification of life infrastructure. The installation of smart meters has advantages for both operators and users. For example, operators can reduce the time, effort, and costs involved in meter readers actually going to meters to visually check the numerical values of the amount used on them. Meanwhile, users can grasp the amount they are using on a daily basis. Moreover, if, for example, an operator confirms that there is an electrical leakage, gas leakage, water leakage, or other malfunction from the meter data collected with LPWA, it is possible to take an emergency response such as cutting off the supply with remote control. Therefore, the safety of the living environment can be improved. The locations where LPWA is used in this case are mainly areas with residences, companies, and other buildings. Therefore, cellular base stations are plentiful. That means that cellular LPWA (licensed band) is used in many cases for automatic meter reading by smart meters.

In addition to the aforementioned life infrastructure, the insides of buildings such as houses, offices, factories, and commercial facilities are also being made smarter. For instance, it has become possible to set up a highly convenient and comfortable living environment by integrating and controlling house locks (smart locks) and air conditioners, lighting equipment, and various other home appliances, that is, by realizing smart homes and connected homes. Moreover, it is possible to collectively manage the usage and locking situation of shared spaces and meeting rooms in factories, offices, and other facilities, freeing us from the complexity of managing the usage and locking situation.  
LPWA is being considered and is becoming more widely used for the following reasons in the smartification of such facilities.

・The control signals and sensing data have a small size

・There is excellent cost-effectiveness in operation such as in terms of the cellular communication expenses

・Maintenance labor is low (the battery life is 10 years or more)

・It is possible to select cellular LPWA (licensed band) in regions where communication connections with the base stations of carriers are stable (regions where many people live and work) and non-cellular LPWA (unlicensed band) that enables communication using gateways even in regions where connections with base stations are not stable with cellular LPWA (mountainous regions, isolated islands, and regions distant from urban districts)

Small LPWA modules can also be equipped to small devices. For example, it is possible to acquire location information on people, animals, things, and other by equipping small LPWA modules to wearable devices and trackers. Therefore, location tracking technology using these devices is being widely utilized. 
Let’s assume we will be using the cellular LPWA (licensed band). In that case, the location data transmitted from wearable devices and trackers is delivered to a data server via the communication network of a carrier from a cellular base station to enable tracking to be performed. It is possible to use wearable devices to watch over children and prevent pets from becoming lost with this technology. Moreover, packages in transport can be tracked in real time from a remote location. In addition, cellular LPWA also supports tracking in international logistics with roaming of the access point carriers in each country.

The introduction of LPWA with its features including long-distance communication and low-power consumption is expanding into fields such as environmental monitoring and smart agriculture. For instance, we can install various environmental measurement sensors (water temperature, water volume, soil and CO2 concentration, etc.) at monitoring points in mountainous regions, isolated islands, and areas far from urban centers. We can then collect the data acquired from those sensors if we use non-cellular LPWA (unlicensed band). This makes it possible to grasp in real time from a remote location the conditions at the monitoring points. Moreover, expansion from environmental sensing to smart agriculture (agri-tech) is also being considered based on this example. 
It is possible to use cellular LPWA (licensed band) if the environment is located in a town or village capable of stable communication with base stations.

When paying for goods or services using wireless communication (smart payment) outdoors, if, for example, Wi-Fi is used, the server is sometimes not able to receive the data because the strength of the signals reaching the gateway is low. Moreover, if we use methods of cellular mobile communication such as 4G LTE or 5G with a smartphone serving as the terminal, the burden of communication expenses may increase. 
On the other hand, although it is the same cellular method as 4G LTE or 5G, if we use cellular LPWA (licensed band), we can send payment data in real time at a lower cost than mobile communication. Smart payment using LPWA is expected to be utilized in outdoor restaurants, mobile stores, sales of goods at outdoor events, taxis, and similar.