Fifth iteration of the Communications Service Provider IoT Peer Benchmarking report from Transforma Insights examines the key themes in cellular-based IoT connectivity and identifies the market leading MNOs and MVNOs
Transforma Insights has today published the 2025 edition of its ‘Communications Service Provider (CSP) IoT Peer Benchmarking Report’, identifying both the key themes that are defining the IoT connectivity market and the leading MNOs and MVNOs for IoT1.
Key trends in cellular IoT connectivity
As a result of the extensive analysis of the capabilities and strategies of the CSPs profiled here, as well as the ongoing research that we do on technical and commercial best practice in all aspects of cellular-based IoT connectivity, we are able to draw a set of conclusions about how the IoT connectivity market, and specifically that related to cellular connectivity, has evolved since the last report was published in July 2024.
There were three macro-level themes that emerged during the research:
- Coping with price erosion – One overriding key theme is, as ever, the pursuit of mechanisms to mitigate continuing declines in average revenue per connection. The overall impact is that CSPs continue to look for mechanisms to reduce costs, differentiate propositions and diversify revenue. The report highlights ways that CSPs can differentiate their propositions, based on 6 ‘S’s: Software, Supply, Scale, Services, Solutions, and Systems.
- Localisation – The other macro-level key theme is that of ‘localisation’, which takes several forms. One is SGP.32 and remote SIM provisioning. There are numerous others. The regulatory compliance topic is one, requiring localising the connection in a compliant way and ensuring that the IoT deployment complies with other rules. Elsewhere MNOs are focusing more attention on domestic markets rather than global offerings, but often in conjunction with expanding partnerships with other MNOs doing the same. And network technology fragmentation lends a further localisation dimension, where each country’s mix of available networks varies quite significantly (including 2G/3G switch off, NB-IoT/LTE-M availability, 5G SA upgrades and so on).
- SGP.32 and the single-pane-of-glass (SPOG) – The imminent arrival of the latest remote SIM provisioning standard looms large in discussions. It promises a shift from roaming to localisation (although roaming isn’t going away), and a potential pivot of some CSPs to be more of a connectivity platform play; indeed, one or two CSPs are almost there already. It will be a very useful technology but it’s not a magic wand and the breadth of other support services required from CSPs to enterprise adopters remains significant. SGP.32 also drives the need for SPOGs to abstract across MNO connectivity management platforms and core networks.
More granular analysis – and exploring in more detail some of the aspects of those three high level trends – is provided in the report which highlights 24 key themes that surfaced during the research, as illustrated in the chart below.
Market leadership
Based on our assessment of the CSPs’ strategies and capabilities we seek to advise enterprise adopters of which would be the most appropriate vendor to use for their IoT connectivity needs. The answer to that question is always specific to that organisation’s requirements, so there is no single ‘best’ CSP for IoT. However, we do like to provide a comparison of all of the CSPs according to our view of what constitutes best practice and innovation in the field. As a result we include analysis indicating which of the IoT Connectivity Providers has the most scalable, compliant, transparent and/or future-proof approaches to addressing the various elements of IoT connectivity. That way we can, in some way, provide a useful comparison of capabilities.
This year’s analysis has been expanded to include a more structured approach to assessing capabilities related to addressing specific vertical use cases. Transforma Insights’ view has always been that the diversity of IoT means the demands of one use case or vertical will be very different from others. Consequently the ability of the different CSPs to address those requirements will also vary. Another tenet of our view of the market is that experience in addressing a particular use case is a significant asset; we will often recommend to enterprise adopters to seek out vendors that ‘have’ addressed their particular use case (or similar) rather than those that simply say they ‘can’.
Based on those two considerations, we have added a dimension to the analysis this year which considers specifically (a) expertise and (b) experience in addressing a set of eight use case groups, including Automotive OEM, smart metering, and payment terminals. The other dimension of the assessment incorporates the horizontal ratings that we included in the analysis in previous years, looking at the overall capabilities of each of the CSPs in delivering IoT connectivity. This includes factors such as how multi-country connectivity is addressed, compliance, scalability, mechanisms for global traffic management, CMP capabilities, devices, security and consulting.
The top group of IoT connectivity providers is largely unchanged from last year, although we note a general continued improvement in developing mechanisms to support multi-country deployments including addressing more difficult geographies. Vodafone remains the leading global IoT connectivity provider. We expect further developments from it in the coming year as it realises the opportunities associated with its position as a more independent operator. Hot on Vodafone’s heels is AT&T, which is notable for adding a number of new capabilities which it is bedding in, including Global SIM Advanced, IoT Console Single Pane of Glass and Connection Manager. The continuing development of Verizon’s Global IoT Orchestration function also helps its global credibility, as does DT IoT’s extended work on partnership building with other MNOs. Wireless Logic has also notably ramped up its capabilities during the year, including through the Arqia acquisition. Telefónica’s position in the top rank of CSPs continues, thanks in large part to the depth of its vertical sector expertise, the wider capabilities of the Telefónica Tech group and the addition of some interesting capabilities to its connectivity proposition.
There continues to be a healthy group of innovative MVNOs, led by emnify, Eseye, floLIVE, Soracom and Tata Communications that have built notable capabilities that help them to score well on the Horizontal Expertise axis, albeit typically without the scale of vertical deployments (yet) to challenge for the top leadership positions in the overall ranking. In some cases the score on the Vertical Experience axis suffers from active decisions to not pursue the automotive OEM space, something which is probably the correct decision given how crowded that market is. In other cases, a decision to focus on a small subset of the functionality considered under the Horizontal Expertise umbrella means an overall relatively low score masking some innovative work, as is the case with TEAL.
In the chart above, for the purposes of full transparency, we also include a dot to indicate the location of the average Transforma Insights client (i.e. any company with which we have had a commercial relationship in the last 12 months). The majority of CSPs tracked in this study fall into that category.
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