Friday, November 8, 2024

How Important are Mobile Service Provider IoT Revenues?

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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How Important are Mobile Service Provider IoT Revenues?

Some might argue that 5G was the first mobile platform intentionally designed to support internet of things services in addition to mobile p...