The growing IoT (Internet of Things) data services market is now generating plenty of new sales in the communications market. Business technology journalist, Antony Savvas looks at some of the beneficiaries.
Having a disco
Data management services firm WANdisco recently signed an initial agreement worth US$12.7 million (€12 million) with a “global European-based automotive manufacturer”, which led to a boosted trading update for the year.
This deal is for Internet of Things data that resides in the client’s data centre, and which will now be migrated to the cloud by WANdisco. Once the migration is complete, it is expected the customer will launch a range of IoT-related services.
With the advent of electric vehicles (EVs), automotive manufacturers are increasingly seeing data as an important revenue opportunity. WANdisco says it continues to see significant interest in the company’s solutions from vehicle makers globally, and expects this industry vertical to be a “core and growing market”.
“Customers want to seamlessly and securely migrate large-scale data from on-premise and edge platforms to the cloud,” says David Richards, CEO and chairman of WANdisco.
Indeed, just before the carmaker deal, WANdisco signed an agreement worth $31 million (€29.4 million) with a “second Tier 1 global telecoms supplier” for the migration and management of data.
Connectivity management
Developments in the areas of network virtualisation, eSIM technology and LPWA (low-power wide-area) networking are currently driving a shift in the market towards a greater diversity of IoT connectivity management services, according to research from Berg Insight.
Berg says about 31% of the global installed base of 2.1 billion IoT SIMs were managed using third-party IoT CMPs (connectivity management platforms) at the end of 2021.
Cisco is the largest IoT CMP provider through mobile operator partners, Berg says, supporting the IoT operations of more than 60 mobile operators worldwide.
The main challengers include Ericsson, Vodafone and MAVOCO. These providers focus on reducing the complexity associated with multinational deployments of cellular IoT devices. The China-based vendors Huawei and Whale Cloud are key players for that domestic market.
MVNOs
And several IoT MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), including 1NCE, Eseye and Soracom, also provide white-labelled or branded IoT connectivity services via mobile operators.
In addition to being a strategic partner to Deutsche Telekom, 1NCE recently announced a deal with SoftBank, which will sell 1NCE’s IoT services exclusively in 19 markets across the Asia-Pacific region.
US-based IoT MVNO Aeris acquired Ericsson’s IoT business last month (see: Aeris to acquire IoT business from Ericsson, ) and marked a “significant development in the space”, Berg says. The loss-making Ericsson unit will be developed by Aeris to target wider use cases in the enterprise market.
Aeris’ Intelligent IoT Network, targeting industry verticals such as transportation, energy, automotive and healthcare, will give communications service providers (CSPs) the opportunity to monetise new services on top of connectivity enabled by Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator. The company has already teamed up with several CSPs, including Softbank, AT&T, T-Mobile and Vodafone, and says it is also working with “leading automotive original equipment manufacturers”.
IoT Accelerator is currently used by more than 9,000 enterprises to manage more than 95 million connected devices with 22 million eSIM connections globally. These enterprises and connections leverage Ericsson’s ecosystem of over 35 CSP partners for global IoT cellular connectivity.
In addition, the Connected Vehicle Cloud, which is included in the transfer, is a connected car platform used so far to connect six million vehicles across 180 countries.
A first priority for Aeris will be to establish a “sustainable business model” for the acquired business, says Berg. Aeris could potentially develop a managed service offering around IoT Accelerator, which can be resold by mobile operators.
The new IoT Accelerator Device Connect service already resembles the offering of many IoT MVNOs, in which enterprises can buy managed connectivity services from multiple mobile operators off-the-shelf via the Device Connect global marketplace.
With telcos operating much of the edge being used to interrogate and manage business data quicker and more effectively than sending it all to distant cloud data centres, they are obviously in a good place to benefit from the growing IoT data services space generally.
‘Business as usual’
China’s Huawei Technologies said at the turn of the year that its 2022 revenue showed a slight increase, despite ongoing US sanctions.
In the trading update, revenue for the year is expected to reach $91.50 (€86.8 billion). This was seen as big progress by the company, considering its 2021 sales slumped 30% annually after US sanctions took hold.
“US restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual,” claims Huawei chairman, Eric Xu. “The macro environment may be rife with uncertainty, but what we can be certain about is that digitisation and decarbonisation are the way forward, and they’re where future opportunities lie,” Xu added.
Although Huawei is upbeat about its future, its record revenue was achieved in 2019, when it managed to generate around $122 billion (€115.8 billion) before the sanctions came.
That year, the Trump administration cited “national security concerns” for bringing in planned trade sanctions, and preventing Huawei access to US chip technology and the native Google Android mobile OS, for instance.
But, despite those sanctions, the firm is still amongst the leaders in smartphone sales in Asia, Africa and parts of Europe, and its network infrastructure competes successfully in the same regions, against the likes of Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung and NEC. Its business cloud is also generating new sales, as are its business units covering IoT smart cities and electric vehicles.
The profitability of the firm was not mentioned in the trading update though. The full annual results are expected to be posted during the first quarter of next year.
While Huawei is obviously determined to carry on as best it can, despite being blocked from key technologies and markets most of its rivals continue to enjoy, 2023 may well be another tough year for communications companies from countries that continue to poke the American Eagle in the eye.
The author is Antony Savvas, a global freelance business technology journalist.
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