Beyond IoT Connectivity – The Telco Opportunity

The need for connected devices has evolved over the last 20 years to the point that it is now a commercial necessity rather than a cost saving/efficiency exercise. The main reasons for deploying connected devices in any sector are reducing operating costs, generating new service revenue, meeting customer requirements and complying with regulations. However, the need to generate new service revenue has overtaken the other three as the primary advantage over the last four years (Source: Beecham Research). For example, in the case of enterprises, connected devices provide valuable insights into the use of their products in the field which can be used to improve product design and functionality and add new revenue-generating features. For OEMs, networked products provide a competitive advantage which enables them to generate revenue from recurring services as well as develop an ongoing relationship with the customer.

However, both enterprises and OEMs are struggling to change their business models to support connected devices, since this requires a fundamental shift in the structure of their organizations. In addition to the need to develop innovative recurring services, they must have the infrastructure, resources and tools required to provide ongoing support and bill customers on a subscription basis.

This creates an opportunity for MVNOs and telcos to provide not only the connectivity required to scale global IoT deployments, but the tools needed to make those deployments successful from an operational point of view.