Global Cellular IoT Connectivity Growth Opportunities

Global Cellular IoT Connectivity Growth Opportunities


5G and LPWAN Bring Opportunities for New Applications and Use Cases to Flourish in Different Verticals

The global cellular IoT market is in the growth stage, with telecom operators expanding in terms of net add connections and revenue. Despite the acceleration initiative by the ecosystem to shut down their 2G and 3G networks, the cellular IoT market is evolving fast. A large number of developing economies continue to use 2G and 3G to ensure connectivity at a low cost. However, global 4G adoption surpassed other wireless technologies, and NB-IoT became the fastest-growing technology in China in 2022, which impacted overall market growth. LTE-M is expanding rapidly in the US market. In 2023, 5G was commercially available in the most advanced economies in APAC, North America, Europe, LATAM, and EMEA, and network rollouts continued growing in emerging economies. Total cellular IoT market revenue is estimated to grow from $8.3 billion in 2022 to $15.6 billion in 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 10.9% from 2022 to 2028. The major telecom operators delivering cellular IoT data services include China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefónica. Besides delivering connectivity services with flexible data plans, easy deployment, and high quality, participants are developing ecosystems with cloud providers, system integrators, and hardware manufacturers to test innovative solutions with 5G RedCap as well as terrestrial and non-terrestrial network (NTNs) solutions. This market influences growth opportunities in different areas for both consumer and enterprise use cases. Cellular IoT supports a wide range of use cases, including low-complexity deployments that require low data transmission; devices with higher throughput and low latency; as well as latency-sensitive applications and edge computing. This study provides a forecast analysis of revenue and cumulative IoT connections from 2022 until 2028; revenue forecast by segments (protocol, vertical, and region); and cumulative IoT connections by segments (protocol, vertical, and region).


  • Strategic Imperatives
    • Why is it Increasingly Difficult to Grow?
    • The Strategic Imperative 8
    • The Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the Cellular Internet of Things (IoT) Connectivity Industry
    • Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine
  • Growth Opportunity Analysis
    • Scope of Analysis
    • Market Definitions
    • Segmentation by Connectivity Protocol
    • Key Competitors
    • Key Questions Addressed
    • Growth Environment
    • Growth Drivers
    • Growth Restraints
    • Forecast Assumptions
    • Growth Metrics
    • Revenue and Cumulative IoT Connections Forecast
    • Revenue Forecast by Connectivity Protocol
      • Table Cellular IoT: Revenue Forecast by Connectivity Protocol, Global, 2022-2028
    • Revenue Forecast by Region
      • Table Cellular IoT: Revenue Forecast by Region, Global, 2022-2028
    • Revenue Forecast by Vertical
      • Table Cellular IoT: Revenue Forecast by Vertical, Global, 2022-2028
    • Cumulative IoT Connections by Connectivity Protocol
      • Table Cellular IoT: Cumulative IoT Connections by Connectivity Protocol, Global, 2022-2028
    • Cumulative IoT Connections by Region
      • Table Cellular IoT: Cumulative IoT Connections by Region, Global, 2022-2028
    • Cumulative IoT Connections by Vertical
      • Table Cellular IoT: Cumulative IoT Connections by Vertical, Global, 2022-2028
    • Revenue and Cumulative IoT Connections Forecast Analysis
    • Revenue Forecast Analysis by Connectivity Protocol
    • Revenue Forecast Analysis by Region
    • Revenue Forecast Analysis by Vertical
    • Pricing Trends and Forecast Analysis
    • Competitive Environment
    • Revenue Share
    • Revenue Share Analysis
    • Cumulative IoT Connections Share
    • Cumulative IoT Connections Share Analysis
  • Telecom Operators-Company Profiles
    • AT&T
    • China Mobile
    • China Telecom
    • China Unicom
    • Deutsche Telekom
    • Telefónica
    • Verizon
    • Vodafone
  • Growth Opportunity Universe
    • Growth Opportunity 1-Connected/Autonomous Vehicles for Efficient and Accident-Free Transportation
    • Growth Opportunity 2-IoT/AI/ML Inferencing for Computer Vision and Other Analytics-as-a-Service Solutions
    • Growth Opportunity 3-Industry 4.0 Solutions for Enhanced Productivity and Zero Accidents
    • Growth Opportunity 4-Smart City Applications to Serve Citizens Better and Reduce Costs and Carbon Dioxide Emissions
  • Next Steps
    • Your Next Steps
    • Why Frost, Why Now?

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