The Transforma Insights Blog

Transforma Insights recently published the fifth iteration of our annual Communications Service Provider IoT Peer Benchmarking report based on extensive discussions with 27 leading global providers of cellular connectivity and detailed analysis of their capabilities and strategies. As a result of the extensive analysis , as well as the ongoing research that we do on technical and commercial best practice in all aspects of cellular-based IoT connectivity, we are able to draw 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 July 2024. The report identifies a granular set of 24 key themes. This blog post explores all of those themes.

Driven by sustainability requirements, maintenance cost savings, lower TCO and advances in low power chips, energy harvesting is increasingly being used to power IoT devices. Transforma Insights recently published a report 'The potential for energy harvesting powering IoT devices'. This blog post is based on that report, exploring the applications that can make best use of energy harvesting and the potential size of the battery-less IoT market.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) is ever more widely adopted across industries, the security foundations that underpin billions of connected devices will soon be exposed to a new threat. The rapid evolution of quantum computing threatens to undermine today’s widely deployed cryptographic algorithms, especially asymmetric methods used for authentication and secure communications.

Transforma Insights' Paras Sharma attended the recent India Mobile Congress 2025. This blog post explores some of the innovative solutions on show at IMC, including low-cost safety featured mobile devices, the digital grain ATM, smart inventory management, and developments in the drone ecosystem.

Transforma Insights recently conducted a study of over 80 regulatory regimes around the world to seek clarification on the know-your-customer (KYC) rules for M2M/IoT SIMs. That research was published in the report ‘The current status of Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations for IoT SIMs’. The report is helpful for entities looking to understand the KYC regulatory landscape and support compliance for IoT connectivity service providers. This blog post summarises the key findings from that report, particularly exploring the status of IoT SIM registration rules around the world.

Manufacturers of medical devices and equipment are under constant pressure to deliver safe, reliable products while meeting regulatory demands and reducing lifetime costs. In recent years, the management of such medical devices has also become more complex, since these devices are increasingly being integrated with digital networks and the requirements for accuracy, compliance, reliability, and safety are being emphasised more than ever before. This blog explores what remote diagnostics means for the manufacturers of healthcare equipment, why integrating IoT is important, and what are the challenges of doing so.

There is a changing set of dynamics and a lot of uncertainty about know-your-customer (KYC) processes for IoT SIMs. We recently published a report on ‘The current status of Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations for IoT SIMs’ that provides a detailed analysis of KYC rules and guidelines related specifically to IoT (or M2M) SIMs and eSIMs in more than 30 countries across different regions of the world. This blog post is inspired from the insights drawn from the report and touches upon what IoT SIM KYC means, how is it different from phone SIMs, and suggests a more appropriate KYC approach for regulating IoT SIMs.

As global mobile networks accelerate the shutdown of 2G and 3G technologies, the implications extend far beyond legacy voice and data services. One critical area affected is the Short Message Service (SMS) that underpins a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The webinar underlined the importance of preserving SMS functionality over LTE networks and beyond to ensure continuity for millions of connected devices worldwide as described how this can be achieved.

Last week we at Transforma Insights published our annual Communications Service Provider IoT Peer Benchmarking Report. As with previous years this included a ranking of the 27 CSPs based on our view of the capabilities and approach. As with last year, we included an assessment of ‘horizontal’ capabilities relevant to delivering IoT connectivity, looking at the overall capabilities of each of the CSPs such as how multi-country connectivity is addressed, compliance, scalability, mechanisms for global traffic management, CMP capabilities, devices, security and consulting. Unlike last year, the 2025 report’s assessment also included a separate ‘vertical’ dimension. This blog post explores the two dimensions, with a particular focus on the new vertical assessment.

The satellite Internet of Things (IoT) sector is undergoing significant transformation. Historically focused on asset tracking in regions without terrestrial network coverage, satellite connectivity now supports a wide range of industrial and commercial applications. A recent white paper ‘Rethinking satellite IoT: how spectrum, architecture and technology define addressable markets’, by Transforma Insights, developed in partnership with Globalstar, examines how spectrum policy, network architecture, and technology choices shape market potential and limitations. This blog post summarizes its main findings.