Mobile sector's IoT connections to top 1.75 billion by 2020

China Mobile Communications Corp, the world's largest telecom carrier by subscribers, said mobile internet of things (IoT) connections will surpass 1.75 billion by 2020, as the telecom heavyweight accelerates its commercialization of IoT services across the country this year.

China Mobile on Thursday announced it would establish an IoT alliance in cooperation with nine partners, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Huawei Technologies Co, Qualcomm Inc and Haier Group, in a move to establish an open and sharing IoT industry ecosystem.

"We will further expand IoT connections and estimate that smart connections will increase by 100 million to 200 million this year," Sha Yuejia, vice-president of China Mobile, said at the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Shanghai.