Capturing the potential of IoT requires us to rethink connectivity.

It is central to our ability to bring together the digital and physical worlds, providing the tools to change the way businesses function and the way people live. And the pent-up value is still there, and growing – by 2030, it is estimated that the technology could enable $5.5 trillion to $12.6 trillion in value globally.

The challenge now is unlocking this value. This requires us to rethink our approach, starting with addressing the connectivity problem.

SQUARE CONNECTIVITY PEG, ROUND IOT HOLE

Connectivity is one of the core components of the IoT – it quite literally puts the “I” in IoT. But it is often an afterthought, as legacy infrastructure and network operators, which weren’t designed with IoT in mind, are retrofitted to new use cases.

This has resulted in a myriad of different issues for the sector. Most notably, end-users are often burdened with the task of finding their own data plans to fuel their projects, and once they do make that choice, they’re often locked into one provider. That is, users will receive their devices without SIM cards, forcing them to choose a single network provider on their own that locks them into a particular service.

In mobile devices, this isn’t necessarily such a big issue – you can switch to another network provider by easily accessing and replacing the SIM card. However, imagine you are monitoring equipment in a remote location –it’s a lot more difficult to replace SIM cards because of the lack of access to the physical device. This is made even more awkward as embedded SIMs do not require physical card insertion.

This result is that today’s user experience is baked with inflexibility. For example, you are a mining firm that is transporting mined stone, which means you only really need to look at the data intermittently to check in on the status of your shipment. However, a few weeks later, you are transporting a shipment of precious materials, so you need a network that always enables you to access data on the precise location of your shipment.

This example requires an agile solution, which recognizes that no one IoT project is ever the same. They differ in needs and configurations, and requirements often change over time, so they need to be able to move from one network operator to another freely and to seek the best deals on the market that fit their requirements at the time.

Instead, the status quo means that they will likely have to adopt and switch between a patchwork of IoT partnerships for different use cases, which becomes not only difficult to manage, but also expensive.

Changing How We Think Of Connectivity

Some IoT device manufacturers have started implementing eSIM (eUICC) standards. While this solution is a little more flexible than regular SIMs and you may be able to avoid a network lockin, the embedded commercial agreements can be equally inflexible.

Given the importance of connectivity to the success of IoT projects and uptake, the supply side needs to capture this requirement for greater agility. That is, we must move beyond out-of-date network practices and adopt more flexible and reliable connectivity alternatives.

That’s where embedding connectivity comes in. Rather than it being an afterthought, connectivity should be built into a device at a manufacturing level. Providing IoT users with embedded connectivity solutions firstly means reducing costs and saving time, as connectivity implementation is rolled into the manufacturing process.

Choosing to embed connectivity into devices before they’re shipped also means that end-users are able to control what kind of connectivity options the devices will be capable of and precisely what networks devices connect to. This means that deployments can be scaled safely over long periods of time without losing operational freedom to vendor lock-ins.

A NEW COMMERCIAL MODEL?

This new approach to connectivity also lays the groundwork for an entirely new commercial model for IoT, giving users the flexibility to balance the quality of coverage and cost-optimization, depending on the use case.

Taking a step back – at a simple level, the role of a SIM card is to give your devices a connection so they can send and receive data, which is the primary source of value that IoT network providers offer. But the status quo means that users are often charged for how many devices they have connected, regardless of how they are being used – that’s an expensive way to run things, particularly if you have an armada of devices to look after.

Not only does embedding connectivity at the manufacturing level already give more control at an operational level, but it can also translate this greater commercial control, such as allowing users to only be charged for the data they actually need –if a device isn’t using any data, you aren’t being charged. This reduces the overhead of IoT connectivity, provides you with a flexible solution, and means that products can be tested easier on the factory floor, since activating devices early on won’t result in excessive device fees. Returning to the mining company that transports different materials – under traditional forms of connectivity, it’s clear that it would have been an expensive operation to run. But with embedded connectivity, and the flexibility it offers to balance the need for quality coverage and costs in different use cases (transporting stone is different from transporting precious materials), immediately makes IoT far more scalable and aligned with modern, digital transforming businesses.

UNLOCKING IOT’S POTENTIAL

In times of downturn, IoT can be used to generate deep business insights, improve efficiency, and ultimately save money. In good times, if properly harnessed, IoT can provide insights that support the investment in new dynamic business models.

But the truth is that this value is still under lock and key. And unpicking it requires us to rethink connectivity for the era of IoT rather than mobile. When we do, the full potential and scale that IoT can bring will be there for all to see.

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