Back at the end of October, 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. Our selection was based on scale, ability to deliver global services, and innovation in the service offering. Inclusion in the report is also dependent on providing access to senior executives within the organisation and extensive insight on the proposition and strategies in order for Transforma Insights to form an appropriately accurate opinion on its position within the market.
In this blog post we provide a short summary of our perspectives on the capabilities of each of the players, as drawn from the report.
1NCE remains one of the most prominent IoT MVNOs, with an eye-catching proposition, good technology stack, a set of value-added features, and a strong regional expansion strategy supported by a growing set of investor partners.
AT&T is a leading provider of IoT connectivity globally, with a particular strength in connected vehicles. It has made some significant changes to its middleware stack and mechanisms for supporting multi-country deployments, including working with Simetric and Eseye, introducing its own low-cost connectivity management platform, and adding the Network Intelligence suite, which all bode well for the future. The addition of AT&T Video Intelligence and Connected Spaces, as well as continued focus on ‘white glove’ support also demonstrate a strong approach to its wider IoT proposition.
Deutsche Telekom IoT remains a major IoT player, both as a stand-alone entity and as part of a wider set of capabilities within the Deutsche Telekom group. In the last year has seen it strengthen its approach to partnerships with other global providers, including the Bridge Alliance, and the bedding in of its revised platform strategy.
The direct access agreements that underpin emnify’s SuperNetwork approach continue to be an effective mechanism for delivering IoT connectivity, supported by a flexible cloud-based stack and strong recent work in adding automation features.
Eseye has been diversifying its strategy to become an IoT connectivity platform player, an approach which was given a significant boost with the tie-up with AT&T to support the Global SIM Advanced proposition. We expect further developments in that direction in coming years, underpinned by its embracing of the eSIM standards and a strong global footprint. Its professional services capabilities are also a strength.
floLIVE operates principally as a Connectivity Management Platform for MNOs and MVNOs, supported by a very strong platform and global infrastructure proposition with good compliance capabilities.
After a challenging few years, KORE has undertaken a significant restructuring and rationalisation of its portfolio, and is starting see some positive results. It remains a significant player with particular strengths in healthcare and operational logistics.
As well as a significant presence in its domestic market, including interesting activities focused on data management related to IoT, KPN is also a significant player in supporting the wholesale and MVNO market.
NTT has a strong proposition across all aspects of IoT, from the global connectivity offering, which is seeing increasing wins in the connected car space, through to extensive consulting, systems integration, hardware, compliance and edge compute offerings.
Onomondo is one of an emerging set of IoT connectivity platform players differentiating on its efficient SoftSIM proposition and cloud-native software stack. It has also made an early foray into building an eSIM orchestration function using SGP.32.
Ooredoo is a significant regional player in the Middle East and North Africa as well as Indonesia. Its recent activity has been focused on deploying a range of end-to-end solutions and comprehensive IoT projects in its footprint, securing quite extensive smart meter deals, and establishing itself as a key player for incoming localisation – particularly for connected car – in its footprint.
Pelion has established a strong position, particularly in the UK, for verticals such as energy/utilities and transportation. It has also positioned itself well for the trend towards eSIM localisation and has implemented a flexible new approach to pricing customisation.
The Proximus Global offering in IoT, formerly that of BICS, is focused largely on indirect channels, i.e. supporting third party IoT connectivity providers. It makes strong use of the groups assets in global network infrastructure and compliance, as well as providing strong analytics capabilities.
Since its acquisition by Semtech in 2022, the performance of the Sierra Wireless cellular hardware and connectivity business has been challenged, mostly in the IoT hardware business. However, the connectivity business, separate from hardware, is stable, having declined in recent years. It has added new features, including a single-pane-of-glass, as well as several that combine the company’s capabilities in hardware and LoRaWAN, including Smart Sensing and those related to video compression.
Singtel continues to punch above its weight as a regional orchestrator of connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region, frequently acting as partner of choice for global IoT MNOs. It has also been expanding much more into supporting connectivity, particularly for auto makers, in other regions. It has also been a leading player in 5G IoT, including through its Paragon platform.
Soracom is a nimble, cloud-native IoT MVNO which has developed a feature-rich highly developer-friendly proposition. It has secured some significant customers and growth is strong. Its pending foray into non-IoT connectivity through the Marubeni joint venture will be interesting to watch. It has also built some interesting capabilities related to AI-based data analytics.
Tata Communications has built an increasingly successful global connectivity proposition, based on strong global infrastructure and compliance, and a very strong proposition related to eSIM, courtesy of the acquisition of Oasis. The middleware stack, including its ‘fabrics’ represents a well thought-through approach to managing global connectivity and integrating IoT data with other functions. In India and beyond it also has an extensive portfolio of end-to-end solutions.
TEAL has a different proposition for the market than most CSPs in this report. It is effectively an eSIM orchestrator, with a proposition based on localising to MNO networks and management through the TEAL platform. Effectively its offering is akin more to a single-pane-of-glass (SPOG) platform than an MVNO. It does this very effectively.
Tele2 IoT continues to see strong growth, courtesy of an aggressive approach to entering new geographical and vertical markets. Its building of direct sales teams in Europe, development of a compliant solution for addressing the Turkish market and successful targeting of the emerging electric vehicle market are illustrative. Becoming part of the Iliad group also presents new opportunities.
Telefónica has perhaps the most complete set of vertical propositions for addressing IoT in a wide range of verticals, including smart cities, healthcare and industrial. This is complemented by AI and analytics functions, and consulting capabilities, within Telefónica Tech. It has added some innovative features to its in-house Kite platform, including Asset Control.
Telenor IoT, particularly through Telenor Connexion, is a trusted and long-established provider of IoT connectivity. Particular focuses recently have been on leveraging its extensive data sets related to IoT through its Analytics & Insights services, and expanding its vertical expertise, for instance within automotive.
Telia’s IoT proposition has become more focused in recent years on addressing its own geographic footprint, particularly focusing on transport, smart buildings and utilities. The addition of new horizontal approach to supporting IoT data management represents a strong move beyond connectivity in a scalable way.
Telit Cinterion, as well as being a major IoT hardware vendor, is an established IoT MVNO with an extensive middleware stack, and comprehensive approach to eSIM. It has built extensive capabilities in supporting customers as they build and deploy IoT, with strong pre-sales and post-sales support.
Velos IoT is a long-established IoT MVNO, formerly as JT IoT and now as an independent entity. It supports both direct and indirect customers. It has done a lot of work in the last year to move to being cloud-native, as well as adding eSIM localisation functionality.
Verizon is a major IoT connectivity provider, predominantly focused on the US market. It has been further refining its global ambitions recently, continuing to expand the scale and scope of its Global IoT Orchestration initiative, adding further functionality and partnerships. Recent interesting developments include the expansion of its full-stack solution portfolio to include Sensor Insights and 5G Video Insights.
Vodafone IoT has been the leading provider of global IoT connectivity for over a decade, with a comprehensive proposition and substantial scale. It is 18 months into its new positioning as a separate business and it has numerous wheels in motion to evolve its strategy to reflect its changing role, with the new partnership with Simetric as just one example.
Wireless Logic has a strong heritage in IoT and an ever-expanding proposition that continues to place it as one of the leaders in the IoT connectivity space. Geographically it has expanded into Latin America with the Arqia acquisition, and in terms of sectors it is now increasingly pushing into the automotive sector. It has a strong technology stack, from resilient core through to application enablement, and excellent commercial capabilities. Many of its acquisitions also give a strong breadth of offering beyond pure IoT connectivity.
The Communications Service Provider IoT Peer Benchmarking Report is based on detailed analysis of the strategies of 27 leading global providers of cellular connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), both Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and IoT Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). The Communications Service Providers profiled consist of: 1NCE, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom IoT, emnify, Eseye, floLIVE, KORE, KPN, NTT, Onomondo, Ooredoo, Pelion, Proximus Global, Semtech, Singtel, Soracom, Tata Communications, TEAL, Tele2, Telefónica, Telenor, Telia, Telit Cinterion, Velos IoT, Verizon, Vodafone and Wireless Logic. The 161-page report starts with an Executive Summary which highlights the key high-level trends and overall market leaders. It continues to a section on ‘Key trends for Communications Service Providers in IoT’, which identifies the 24 major themes that emerge from the research on how the cellular-based IoT conectivity landscape is evolving. The next section – ‘How do we rate the leading vendors?’ – provides an explanation on the process and criteria for rating the CSPs, across both vertical and horizontal capabilities. The final section provides extensive profiles for each of the 27 CSPs.
Based on the extensive research undertaken in the CSP IoT Peer Benchmarking Report, Transforma Insights delivered a free webinar ‘IoT Communications Service Provider (CSP) strategies and landscape’ on the 25th November during which we discussed the key themes and topics that have emerged from the process of preparing the benchmarking study.
