Cellular IoT connectivity revenues increased 12% to hit €14.2 billion in 2024. This is according to the latest report from Berg Insight, as it projects there will be 6.4 billion IoT devices connected to cellular networks by 2029, generating annual connectivity revenues of €22.4 billion.
The top 10 mobile operators reported a combined active base of 3.3 billion cellular IoT connections at the end of 2024, accounting for 86% of the total 3.8 billion conncetions. China Mobile is the world’s largest provider of cellular IoT connectivity services with 1.42 billion connections; while China Telecom and China Unicorn ranked second and third, respectively, with 628 million and 625 million connections.
Vodafone was first among the Western operators and fourth overall at 204 million connections, and AT&T following with 143 million in fifth place. Deutsche Telekom and Verizon had in the range of 56–60 million cellular IoT connections each. KDDI, Telefónica and Orange were the last companies in the top ten with about 49 million, 45 million and 37 million connections respectively. The installed bases of the largest mobile operators grew at a rate of 5–26% annually.
IoT managed service providers also play a key role in the ecosystem. Most companies operate as full MVNOs, typically offering IoT connectivity services based on a mix of roaming and local access agreements and sometimes also value-added services targeted at vertical segments. Notable examples include 1GLOBAL, 1NCE, Aeris, BICS, CSL Group, and more. Altogether, IoT managed service providers had more than 200 million cellular IoT connections under management at the end of 2024 and around € 1.8 billion in annual revenues.
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