Global IoT connectivity revenues increased 24 percent to reach €10,8-billion in 2022 as the decline in the global ARPU decelerated, according to new report from Berg Insight.
The ARPU dropped just 1% to € 0.38. On average, IoT connectivity revenues account for about 2% of total revenues for the largest mobile operator groups.
By 2027, Berg Insight projects that there will be 5,3-billion IoT devices connected to cellular networks worldwide, generating annual connectivity revenues of €21,4-billion.
The top 10 mobile operators reported a combined active base of 2,3-billion cellular IoT connections at the end of 2022, accounting for 87% of the total 2,7-billion connections. China Mobile is the world’s largest provider of cellular IoT connectivity services with 1,06-billion cellular IoT connections. China Telecom and China Unicom ranked second and third with 407-million and 390-million connections respectively.
Vodafone ranked first among the Western operators and fourth overall with 160-million connections, followed by AT&T with 107-million in fifth place. Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica had in the range of 36-million to 57-million cellular IoT connections. KDDI and Orange were the last players in the top 10 with about 30-million each. The year-on-year growth rates for the largest operators were in the span of 1% to 37%.
In Western markets, IoT managed service providers play a key role in the ecosystem. Most players 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 Velos IoT, Aeris, KORE Wireless, 1NCE and Wireless Logic.
Altogether, IoT managed service providers had more than 150-million cellular IoT connections under management at the end of 2022 and around €1,5-billion in annual revenues.