For a long time, I have been out of the industrial cellular scene - laid off by one employer who felt my industrial focus was not useful in the modern world, and hired by a new employer who disagreed.
GPRS began to vanish from usability 4 years ago, and despite Verizon's "promise" that 1XRTT will survive for eternity, all sane folk understand that eventually, the cell towers need to focus on the MOST band for the BUCK.
LTE is a unique opportunity, as for once the entire cellular world is focused on a single HW and radio spec. While LTE tends to highlight uber-speed cellular (like 400Mbps/sec), there is of course efforts to support the low-end, the sub-1mbps tank gauging solutions.
Some of you may have heard of the LTE 'CAT' ratings, such as CAT 6 or CAT 1, CAT 1 is targeted at devices needing less than 10mbps, and a future CAT 0 less than 1mbps. I believe a key concept to understand that people who call GPRS or 1XRTT 'cheap' fail to understand that ultimately, it is how many paying customers can 'pay' for data in one instant that matters. So eventually, cellular data technology which allows MORE customers to send tiny amounts of data in less time benefits the cellular companies greatly.
