The Global M2M/IoT Communications Market – 10th Edition

The Global M2M/IoT Communications Market analyses the latesttrends and developments in cellular IoT and low power wirelessnetworking. This strategic research report from Berg Insight providesyou with 240 pages of unique business intelligence including 5-yearindustry forecasts and expert commentary on which to base yourbusiness decisions.

Berg Insight estimates that the global number of cellular IoT subscribers increased by 14 percentduring 2024 to reach 3.8 billion at the end of the year – corresponding to around 30 percent ofall mobile subscribers. Until 2029, the number of cellular IoT subscribers is forecasted to growat a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.0 percent to reach 6.4 billion at the end of theperiod. During the same period, cellular IoT connectivity revenues are forecasted to grow at aCAGR of 9.6 percent from € 14.2 billion in 2024 to approximately € 22.4 billion in 2029. Meanwhilethe monthly ARPU is expected to drop to from € 0.33 to € 0.30.

China is the world’s largest market for cellular IoT connectivity services by volume. According todata from the national telecom regulator, the installed base in the country grew by 14 percentyear-on-year to reach 2.7 billion IoT connections at the end of 2024. This corresponded to about70 percent of the global installed base. Berg Insight believes that the role of the Chinesegovernment is the main explanation for why China is ahead of the rest of the world in the adoptionof IoT. Authorities actively endorse large-scale IoT deployments as a method for addressingproblems affecting the society, whether it is crime, fire safety, energy conservation or trafficmanagement. The private sector is directed and encouraged to do the same.

North America and Western Europe ranks as the second and third largest markets for IoTsolutions with 294 million and 279 million IoT connections respectively at the end of 2024. Incontrast to China, developments in these regions are largely driven by commercial interests. Theconnected car is currently one of the strongest trends with more than 90 percent of new carssold featuring embedded cellular connectivity in the regions. Other key application areas arefleet management of commercial vehicles, smart utility metering and monitored alarm systems.Latin America, South Asia and Central & Eastern Europe had in the range of 79–97 million IoTconnections, while Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia had between 45–48 million. Australia& Oceania was the smallest region with approximately 20 million IoT connections.

China Mobile is the world’s largest provider of cellular IoT connectivity services. At the end of2024, the operator reported 1.42 billion cellular IoT connections and a year-on-year growth rateof 8 percent. China Telecom and China Unicom ranked second and third with 628 million and625 million connections respectively. Vodafone ranked first among the Western operators andfourth overall with 204 million connections, followed by AT&T with 143 million in fifth place.Deutsche Telekom and Verizon had in the range of 56–60 million cellular IoT connections each.KDDI, Telefónica and Orange were the last players in the top ten with 37–49 million connections.The installed bases of the largest mobile operators grew at a rate of 5–26 percent annually.IoT managed service providers play a key role in the ecosystem with a combined installed baseof more than 200 million cellular IoT connections. A key differentiator for IoT managed serviceproviders is the ability to aggregate multiple wireless wide area networks and thus providesuperior area coverage, multi-domestic footprints and multi-technology connectivity on a singleplatform. Due to the nature of their business, the players are becoming increasingly international,supporting customers in many parts of the world. Important players in this category include1GLOBAL, 1NCE, Aeris, Airnity, BICS, CSL Group, Cubic, emnify, Eseye, floLIVE,Giesecke+Devrient, KORE, Monogoto, Onomondo, Semtech, Soracom, Tata Communications,Teal, Telit Cinterion, Velos IoT and Wireless Logic.

IoT connectivity revenues are growing at a slower rate than the number of connections. BergInsight’s analysis of the IoT business KPIs released by mobile operators in different parts of theworld suggests that global IoT connectivity revenues increased by around 12 percent during2024, while the monthly ARPU dropped by 5 percent. On average, IoT connectivity revenuesaccount for around 2 percent of total revenues for the largest mobile operator groups. As thevalue in IoT lies in value-added services rather than connectivity, IoT connectivity serviceproviders increasingly focus on boosting their IoT portfolios by adding cloud services, securitycapabilities and devices on top of their connectivity offering to capture a larger share of themarket. Several players have embarked on vertical integration strategies, typically by acquiringlocal solution providers in application areas like vehicle telematics and asset tracking. PrivateLTE/5G is an emerging focus area, where many players act as managed service providers.