Aided by the ubiquitous wireless connectivity, declining communication costs, and the emergence of cloud platforms, the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and services is accelerating. Most major mobile network operators view machine-to-machine (M2M) communication networks for supporting IoT as a significant source of new revenue. In this paper, we motivate the need for wide-area M2M wireless networks, especially for short data packet communication to support a very large number of IoT devices. We first present a brief overview of current and emerging technologies for supporting wide area M2M, and then using communication theory principles, discuss the fundamental challenges and potential solutions for these networks, highlighting tradeoffs and strategies for random and scheduled access. We conclude with recommendations for how future 5G networks should be designed for efficient wide-area M2M communications.