By Anton Le Saux, Head of Connectivity and Partner Sales at O2 Telefónica UK: A recent market forecast has predicted that the global IoT and M2M market will hit $498.92 billion by 2019, and a report by Analysys Mason has positioned utilities as the fastest growing M2M sector and predicted that it will represent 67 per cent of overall M2M device connections by 2023.
The same report also forecasts that SMEs will increasingly use M2M technology as affordability improves and the technology becomes more accessible to smaller businesses.
Our experience with our Global Partner Programme (GPP) confirms all of this. Many smaller partners are joining us who previously assumed that there were too many barriers to operating on a global scale. A recent start-up company also joined us, convinced they wouldn't be able to compete on pricing before they had the volume business on the books, and just did not have the internal resource to handle complex roaming agreements with multiple MNOs around the world. Our GPP programme solved all of these issues, offering a level playing field on pricing, international presence with a global SIM, access to local support and a platform without any volume commitment. It has opened up global markets for them, competing with established organisations but remaining the nimble, entrepreneurial businesses they are.
As an understanding of M2M solutions grows, confidence is growing alongside it and more companies realise how viable M2M deployments are. All of this means that the next few years should see a host of new industries turn to M2M for the first time, including retail, security and healthcare, and we are confident that the market predictions are accurate.
anton.lesaux@telefonica.com - partnersdigital.telefonica.com