5G and eSIM Are a Must for IoT Enterprises

IoT deployments play a vital role in many enterprises’ digital transformation strategies, yielding benefits such as productivity gains, cost savings, and achieving environmental sustainability goals. As a result, enterprises continue to increase their spending on IoT solutions and are broadly expanding deployments, according to Omdia. The survey results showed that enterprises are deploying, or are in the process of rolling out, IoT solutions and that 95% of respondents expect to see measurable benefits from IoT within two years of deployment.

“While some tech giants have scaled back their IoT efforts, enterprises are embracing IoT and seeing remarkable results,” said John Canali, IoT Principal Analyst, Omdia and author of the report. “In fact, enterprises are very forward-looking in incorporating new technologies like 5G, fixed wireless access (FWA), and eSIM/iSIM technology.”

Omdia’s survey results reveal that while LTE (4G) remains a popular connectivity bearer, over 70% of enterprises are planning to use 5G connectivity. Meanwhile, eSIM/iSIM technology has been or will be adopted by nearly 90% of enterprises over the next two years. This technology will enable enterprises to better manage costs and allow them to renegotiate future connectivity tariffs.

Omdia notes that the survey results suggest very positive growth in the deployment of IoT solutions and suggest there will be a positive knock-on effect for players across the IoT value chain, however, there will be increased competition. Enterprises are increasingly reliant on vendors and partners, given that deploying IoT solutions is often complex and requires a diverse array of skills to succeed. Many enterprises cited internally obtaining the relevant resources and skills as a major hurdle.

“Our survey suggests that there are a multitude of opportunities ranging from hardware, software, connectivity, and services. However, security remains at the forefront of enterprise concerns and vendors must be able to not only offer secure products and services but also be able to effectively integrate into broader solutions. Vendors that fail to deliver secure solutions will find themselves locked out of this growing market,” added Andrew Brown, IoT Practice Lead at Omdia.