Some might argue that 5G was the first mobile platform intentionally designed to support internet of things services in addition to mobile phone services.
That noted, IoT mobile service revenues arguably represent less than four percent of total mobile service provider revenues using any mobile platform (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G combined). As important as service providers hope IoT will be, the bulk of revenues will continue to come from the staple "voice and internet access" services used by consumers and their smartphones.
Revenue Source | Percent of Total Revenue |
Voice Services | 20-30% |
Data Services | 30-50% |
Messaging Services (SMS) | 2-5% |
Roaming Charges | 3-7% |
Value-Added Services | 5-10% |
Device Sales | 5-15% |
Content and Digital Services | 5-10% |
Enterprise and IoT Solutions | 5-10% |
Wholesale Services | 5-10% |
Other Revenues | 1-5% |
On the other hand, some estimates suggest IoT will be a significant portion of the enterprise customer revenue stream, eventually.
source: IoT Analytics
IoT percentage of connections is higher, but revenue per connection is an order of magnitude lower than traditional phone connections, generally speaking.
Study | Date | Publisher | Estimate |
Global Cellular IoT Connectivity Tracker & Forecast | June 2024 | IoT Analytics | Cellular IoT (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE-M, and NB-IoT) makes up nearly 21% of global IoT connections |
Global IoT Connections Forecast | 2024 | IoT Analytics | Global cellular IoT connections grew 24% year-over-year in 2023 |
Ericsson Mobility Report | June 2023 | Ericsson | 5.5 billion cellular IoT connections by the end of 2027, majority on 4G/5G. |
GSMA Intelligence IoT Report | 2023 | GSMA Intelligence | 3.2 billion IoT connections on mobile networks by 2025, with rapid 5G growth. |
Cisco Annual Internet Report | March 2023 | Cisco Systems | 10% of global IoT connections will be 5G by 2025. |
Statista IoT Connectivity Forecast | 2023 | Statista | 2.7 billion IoT devices connected via cellular (4G/5G) by 2025. |
IoT Analytics Cellular IoT Report | 2023 | IoT Analytics | 4.3 billion active cellular IoT connections by 2026. |
At least one reason connections might not be as high as some might have forecast is that there are other ways to connect IoT devices, including unlicensed wireless such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and other methods.
Study | Date | Publisher | Estimate |
Global IoT Connectivity Tracker | 2024 | IoT Analytics | Wi-Fi makes up 31% of all IoT connections4 |
Global IoT Connectivity Tracker | 2024 | IoT Analytics | Bluetooth accounts for 25% of connected IoT devices worldwide4 |
IoT Device Connections Report | 2023 | Pondiot | Bluetooth offers a maximum data transfer rate of approximately 3 Mbps for IoT devices1 |
IoT Connectivity Analysis | 2023 | Very Technology | Bluetooth range for IoT devices can be anywhere from 1 meter to 1 kilometer depending on device class and context2 |
IoT Project Connectivity Study | 2023 | Euristiq | Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) can transfer data at a rate of approximately 100-250 KBps for IoT applications3 |
Global IoT Connections Forecast | 2024 | IoT Analytics | There were 0.7 billion wired IoT aggregation nodes in 2023, representing 4% of total IoT connections |
That experience is worth keeping in mind as we start to hear about 6G platforms and their ability to support other types of enterprise or consumer applications, such as virtual reality, autonomous vehicles and so forth.
One always hears about such “futuristic” new use cases whenever a next-generation mobile platform is proposed. Rarely do the proposed innovations reach revenue scale, compared to supporting mobile devices such as smartphones.
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