Analyst firm Transforma Insights says it has identified the key themes and market leaders in IoT connectivity.

In a benchmarking report, it declares the key trends shaping IoT connectivity and identifies the market leading MNOs and MVNOs.

The 2024 edition of its Communications Service Provider (CSP) IoT Peer Benchmarking Report (transformainsights.com/research/reports/csp-iot-peer-benchmarking-2024) is based on discussions with 25 global providers of cellular connectivity and detailed analysis of their capabilities and strategies. These are: 1NCE, AT&T, BICS, Deutsche Telekom IoT, Emnify, Eseye, FloLive, KORE, KPN, NTT, Ooredoo, Pelion, Semtech, Singtel, Soracom, T-Mobile US, Tele2, Telefónica, Telenor, Telia, Telit Cinterion, Velos IoT, Verizon, Vodafone and Wireless Logic.

As a result of the analysis, in addition to its ongoing research on IoT trends, Transforma has drawn a set of conclusions about how the IoT connectivity market, and specifically that related to cellular connectivity, has evolved since the last report was published in February 2023. The main key themes are:

• The pace of change continues to be rapid, with evolving approaches to the market and the arrival of new technologies and commercial models. It expects more disruption in the coming year.
• Devices and a device-to-cloud proposition, often incorporating sensors and data management, are becoming a key component of an IoT connectivity offering.
• The quest for additional chargeable services and revenue streams continues, including through premium support, network attach fees, VAS, fixed wireless access, devices and consulting.
• The need for customisation and contextualisation are paramount and require a modular and composable set of services plus some element of consulting.
• Compliance represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Permanent roaming issues are largely resolved but with new data sovereignty, national resilience and other regulations on the horizon.
• The connectivity management platform landscape is evolving although at a relatively slow pace. There is appetite for change, both for CMP selection (typically dual-sourcing) and for overlay abstraction platforms.
• Composing multi-country connectivity, particularly involving LTE-M and NB-IoT is still too hard. Piggybacking on non-IoT networks remains king, and the door is firmly open for LTE Cat 1bis.
• Despite the fact that the provision of connectivity using LPWA technologies leaves something to be desired, CSPs are still on the scout for the next big thing with satellite NTN fulfilling that role at the moment. 5G does not yet promise much, although some forward-thinking CSPs are preparing.
• SGP.32 is a positive and represents a significant reduction in the complexity of supporting localised connectivity. It will drive new business models and approaches.
• There is innovative work focused on simplifying the process of adopting IoT connectivity, in particular in meeting the developer where they are by translating the telecoms domain into IT.

Based on the assessment of the CSPs’ strategies and capabilities, Transforma seeks to advise enterprise adopters of which would be the most appropriate vendor to use for their IoT connectivity needs. The answer to that question is always specific to that organisation’s requirements, so there is no single best CSP for IoT. Selection depends on many factors, including the capabilities the user needs, the location of devices, preferred commercial models or even which cloud provider is used.

“There are three main categories of leading CSPs for IoT,” said report author Matt Hatton. “At the very apex of the diamond are the major mobile network operators, led by Vodafone and followed closely by DT IoT, NTT, Telefónica, AT&T and Verizon. The second category of market leaders are those that have focused exclusively on providing excellence in a narrow element of pure cellular connectivity, largely ignoring devices or much in terms of customisation for the enterprise client. This group includes 1NCE, Emnify and FloLive. Finally, there is a group of CSPs that straddles the two camps, in some cases with equally capable connectivity offerings, but typically married with a more complete set of capabilities around IoT services. This group comprises Eseye, KORE, Soracom, Telenor, Telit Cinterion and Wireless Logic.”

Overall, the top ten leaders in IoT connectivity are Vodafone, Telenor, FloLive, Wireless Logic, 1NCE, DT IoT, Emnify, NTT, Eseye and Telefonica. The top ten leaders in IoT services are Telefonica, AT&T, NTT, Vodafone, DT IoT, KORE, Verizon, Telit Cinterion, Eseye and Wireless Logic. And the report gives an honourable mention for Soracom which just misses out on both of these lists, but has a strong proposition across both.

The annual assessment of the capabilities and strategies of the leading MNOs and MVNOs in IoT was based on three criteria: scale, ability to deliver global services, and innovation in the service offering.