Iain Davidson, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Wireless Logic, spoke exclusively to IoT Insider following the publication of the company’s report into connectivity challenges, priorities and the expectations of enterprises deploying IoT globally – providing a guide for connectivity providers precisely like Wireless Logic to better follow and understand.
For Wireless Logic, one of the reasons Davidson cited as to why they conduct these reports was due to a desire to “take the pulse” of the IoT industry, in other words, ensuring technology is performing properly – and if not, understanding why.
“We can’t pretend that we can’t be slightly disconnected from taking developing standards, implementing them in a product or service, but doing it in a way that doesn’t quite address customer pain points,” Davidson shared.
The report, conducted in collaboration with Kaleido Intelligence, surveyed 1,000 cellular IoT adopters and non adopters, “we cast our net fairly broadly,” was how Davidson termed it.
Key findings: eSIM, security and adoption barriers
Davidson mentioned three key findings: a maturing understanding of the role eSIM plays in addressing roaming restrictions; an expectation for connectivity providers to offer security solutions and tools; and a key barrier to IoT adoption is due to cost, and the lack of resources enterprises have.
On the eSIM point, Davidson said: “There’s a maturing understanding of the role eSIM plays in the marketplace, and a good example of that is enterprises are more acutely aware of roaming restrictions. So many governments and regulators around the world are limiting inbound roaming and in some cases, there are also operators who limit embedded roaming onto their networks … In some cases mobile network operators are charging for inboard roaming and that makes it really difficult.”
As a result, roaming restrictions have “increasingly been recognised as an issue,” according to Davidson, which provides an opportunity for eSIM.
In terms of security, the second key finding was the “expectation” from enterprises towards connectivity providers to offer security solutions that help with identity management of devices. “Perhaps more prominent were the expectations that we provide the enterprises [with] tools to monitor cybersecurity threats,” he added.
The third key finding was “strong evidence” that barriers to IoT adoption “lay in the lack of skilled resources, the lack of software development tools, a perceived slow return on investment and cost,” explained Davidson.
These three major findings were “satisfying” in a way, Davidson admitted, as Wireless Logic has responded accordingly – in offering eSIM technology; launching its IoT security framework two years ago; and acquiring a company with low code applications designed to ease software development time and costs.
Barriers to connectivity
The report found 32.9% of respondents said current global connectivity support was inadequate for their needs. This, of course, begs the question of why.
“Over 50% of the respondents were deploying internationally,” said Davidson. “They need coverage where they need it.”
Some of these barriers include the regulatory environment, which can make things difficult, and highlights the potential of adoption of satellite IoT technology to provide global coverage where cellular cannot. This is especially beneficial for industries like mining or water infrastructure, very rural environments.
Earlier this year, Wireless Logic secured reseller rights for Starlink, which means it can offer its customers satellite-as-a-service, which includes Starlink’s antennas, cabling, on-site equipment and management service, “to manage the loading between cellular and satellite connections”.
Actionable takeaways
A surprising finding for Davidson was seeing that, in spite of eSIM technology being recognised for its role, for both adopters and non-adopters, eSIM continued to be perceived as a high-cost solution.
“There are enterprises that feel they have to invest in their own remote SIM provisioning infrastructure, rather than partnering with Wireless Logic or other companies like us.” In the same vein, a key takeaway for the company is reaching the number of respondents with the message that the complexity and cost of eSIM can be taken on by them, rather than their customers.
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