Internet Of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is entering a new era, driven by falling airtime costs, new devices, new players and the deployment of 5G. Taken together, these factors are creating a boom in IoT, leading to new applications and new business models. Players in the industry must ready to take full advantage of this opportunity.

IoT service providers generally focus on the orchestration of services – bringing together multi-country connectivity, customer account management and value added services. They ensure efficient management of hundreds of thousands of devices, including airtime aggregation, data and revenue management, monitoring and diagnostics. At the same time, many IoT platforms are playing an increasingly important role in impacting lifestyles, with growth spurred from industries without telecoms expertise such as health, automotive, agriculture and utilities entering the IoT space. Because of this lack of expertise, they will require extensive support from IoT service providers to make sure their use cases are understood and developed with their specific requirements in mind.

Moreover, a number of platforms that have traditionally served voice and data propositions, such as BSS/MVNE platforms, as well as large scale infrastructure players and manufacturers/OEMs, are increasingly pivoting to IoT, aggregating airtime and focusing on ‘as-a-service’ business models. These represent a disruptive model to the traditional IoT-only service providers.

On top of these concerns, deployment of global IoT services still face a number of structural hurdles:

• Negotiating numerous roaming deals with multiple operators
• Dealing with permanent roaming issues
• Inability to get real time data feeds from operators
• Operators feeling threatened by potential cannibalisation of their own IoT business
• Lack of established standards
• Security concerns
• Fragmented ecosystem requiring multiple partnerships
• Interoperability and compatibility concerns

RDC can help you surpass these obstacles and develop a winning IoT business. We have substantial experience in the IoT space, both with traditional IoT providers as well as new emerging innovators, including satellite IoT providers and platform providers. We can help you develop a successful IoT strategy, negotiate airtime deals, determine verticals to target and provide knowledge on the latest technologies, including 5G, NB-IoT, eSIMs and LTE-M.