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Global Upside Opportunities for New M2M Applications

In the last couple of years machine-to-machine (M2M) has become part of the arsenal of products offered by global telecom service providers and a significant revenue stream for M2M technology specialists. They've developed new value propositions, designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency for their clients.

Meanwhile, new business models are beginning to account for new technology concepts and developments, one of the latest to gain significant market traction being the Internet of Things (IoT).

New technologies, combined with existing ones, are now making the IoT vision a reality. Embedded SIM cards will increasingly dominate the M2M category, accounting for more than 50 percent of connections by the end of the decade, according to the latest study by Juniper Research.

M2M Application Market Development 

Outlined as a market driver in their study findings, the introduction of the GSMA embedded specification is likely to fuel the opportunity for mobile network service providers to offer remote provisioning of SIM cards.

The Juniper report authors also noted that this in turn would greatly enhance the capabilities of telecom operators to update and augment offerings, resulting in the growth of new service subscriptions.

Additionally, Juniper analysts believe that migration to Over The Air (OTA) provisioning would facilitate a range of emerging business models, potentially increasing the lifetime value of M2M subscriptions while also reducing costs.


Their report highlighted the increased benefits that embedded SIMs would offer to customers across an array of established verticals, as remote provisioning would motivate network operators to compete on pricing, functionality and customization capabilities.

Juniper Research has claimed that the reduced cost and flexibility afforded by IoT embedded technology could be instrumental in increasing adoption in key verticals, such as agriculture within developing markets.

"By making M2M affordable, the introduction of the embedded model can in turn allow farmers in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia to increase their yield, boosting crop production and helping to address the rising demand for food," said Sam Barker, analyst at Juniper Research.

Other key findings from the study include:
  • Smart Metering and Connected Car connections will become the majority of all cellular M2M embedded connections over the next 5 years.
  • 3G connections will comprise half of all cellular M2M connections in 2021, due to the need for an affordable and low speed service.
  • Mobile network operators should capitalize on the growth of M2M by offering customizable M2M platforms that offer a variety of simple billing models.

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