The global number of cellular M2M subscribers
reached 265 million at the end of 2015
Berg Insight estimates that the global number of cellular M2M
subscribers increased by 23 percent during 2015 to reach 265.2
million at the end of the year – corresponding to around 3 percent
of all mobile subscribers.
Until 2020, the number of cellular M2M
subscribers is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 22.9 percent to reach 744.2 million at the end of the
period. During the same period, cellular M2M network revenues are
forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 23.3 percent from € 8.0 billion in 2015
to approximately € 22.8 billion in 2020.
Meanwhile the monthly ARPU
is expected to remain stable at around € 2.50.
East Asia was the largest region, closely followed by Western Europe
and North America. Altogether they accounted for around 76 percent
of the global cellular M2M subscriber base at the end of 2015.
Until
2020, the relative share of the regions is expected to decrease
slightly as adoption takes off in other parts of the world. At the end
of 2015, East Asia was the largest regional market with 90.4 million
cellular M2M subscribers, growing 25 percent year-on-year. Western
Europe came second with 59.0 million M2M subscribers and 21
percent year-on-year growth. North America ranked third with 52.5
million cellular M2M subscribers, and a year-on-year growth rate of
24 percent. Among individual countries, China was clearly number
one with around 70 million M2M subscribers, ahead of the US with
approximately 50 million M2M subscribers.
The combined size of the
EU+EFTA market was around 64 million M2M subscribers.
Berg Insight believes that M2M/IoT has reached a stage of early
maturity where a number of players have capitalised on envisioned
opportunities to develop substantial new businesses. At the beginning
of 2015, the ten largest mobile operators in the M2M market had an
estimated combined subscriber base of 164.3 million and year-on-year
growth rates of 15–35 percent. China Mobile has an exceptional market
position, as the dominant player in the domestic mobile industry.
At
the end of Q1-2015, the M2M subscriber base was an estimated 46.2
million. Vodafone and AT&T are the top international market players
with their respective main bases in Europe and North America. The
groups were head-to-head in terms of volume with over 21 million
M2M subscribers each. China Unicom and Verizon Wireless were
other top five players with 13–14 million connections each. Telefónica,
Softbank/Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, Telenor and America Móvil were
other top ten players with 8–12 million M2M subscribers each.
A common characteristic for them all is that they are multi-regional
operations across Europe, the Americas or Asia-Pacific.
Another sign of maturity in the M2M/IoT industry is the release of
revenue figures from some telecom operator groups. Verizon and
Vodafone reported quarterly M2M/IoT revenues in the range of
€ 150–200 million each in the first half of 2015 and could be on track
to reach € 1 billion on an annual basis within a few years’ time. Both
groups have substantial telematics businesses, originally established
through acquisitions.
Besides traditional connectivity and professional
services, they generate a considerable share of their sales from
automotive products, driver assistance services and connected
automotive applications.
The wireless M2M/IoT technology landscape is rapidly changing.
2G networks are gradually taken out of service to be replaced by
more efficient 4G technology. At the same time, new enhancements
are being added to the LTE standard to better accommodate typical
M2M use-cases with large numbers of devices and very low data
requirements. In a few years, LTE-M wireless modules will be available
for the same price as today’s GPRS modules, delivering superior
performance using less network resources. A new generation of
LPWA technologies hit the market during 2015, offering an alternative
roadmap to low cost IoT connectivity outside of the traditional mobile
network environment. At the end of the year, the established players
in the telecom industry however took back the initiative. In December
2015, the 3GPP accepted the new NB-IoT standard for lightweight
M2M communication based on mobile network infrastructure. The
NB-IoT and LTE-M standards will be included in 3GPP Release 13,
due for publication in January 2016. Berg Insight believes that the
initiative will become successful in establishing a global standard
for lightweight IoT communication on public networks in the next
3–5 years. NB-IOT has good prospects of becoming the dominant
technology for LPWA, although other standards will most likely also
remain strong in niche segments.
Source:Berg Insight,
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