The IoT connectivity management platform market to reach US$ 1.8 billion by 2029

Cellular IoT communications has special requirements that differ from consumer communications services. In the mobile industry, there has been a gradual shift from the use of generic networking platforms and SIM cards to purpose-built solutions for IoT. The cellular IoT communications space constitutes a highly complex environment with multiple layers of interconnected software systems. This report focuses on two key product categories that facilitate the delivery of cellular IoT communications services: IoT connectivity management platforms (CMPs) and eSIM management platforms.

IoT CMPs enable mobile operators to support their enterprise customers by providing functionality for provisioning, subscription management, cost monitoring and event management. About 12 percent of all IoT SIMs were deployed on third-party IoT CMPs at the end of 2024, while about 7 percent of the installed base was deployed by IoT MVNOs. The remainder was managed via mobile operators’ in-house developed CMPs. Excluding China, the share of IoT SIMs managed via third-party CMPs was substantially higher, accounting for 31 percent of all IoT SIMs. Annual revenues from the sales of third-party IoT CMPs grew 8 percent to reach an estimated US$ 1.0 billion in 2024. Until 2029, annual IoT CMP revenues are forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 12 percent to reach US$ 1.8 billion in 2029.

Market dynamics in the IoT CMP market have evolved in recent years as vendors focus on responding to the challenge of declining ARPUs for IoT connectivity services. Early CMPs were developed at a time characterised by inflated expectations of the IoT market, which has led to incumbent vendors exiting the space, while others have had to rethink their product and pricing strategies, often involving tiered offerings and the addition of value-added services. New investments are targeted at remote SIM provisioning (RSP) platform integrations, eSIM orchestration and connectivity management orchestration capabilities, machine learning-based analytics, security services and programmable network capabilities enabled by 5G SA.

Cisco is the largest IoT CMP provider globally. The company has a strong position in all major geographies and partnered with about 60 mobile operators worldwide at the end of 2024. The number of SIMs managed with Cisco IoT Control Center reached about 262 million. Aeris ranked as the second largest IoT CMP vendor with 28 mobile operator partners and 84 million connected devices at the end of 2024. The company took over the loss-making IoT business of Ericsson in early 2023 and has since the acquisition successfully managed to modernise and streamline operations, while merging its legacy platform and the IoT Accelerator into a single platform. MAVOCO has emerged as a significant player in recent years with more than 10 mobile operator partners at the year-end. MAVOCO’s IoT CMP is cloud- and core-agnostic, allowing mobile operators to utilise existing infrastructure to cost-effectively address IoT customers globally. Other IoT CMP vendors with a meaningful number of IoT CMP deployments are Comarch, Nokia and Vodafone. IoT CMPs are also a key component in the value proposition from vendors such as 1NCE, 1oT, emnify, Eseye and floLIVE, which operate as technology providers for mobile operators, as well as IoT MVNOs.

The fragmentation of the IoT CMP landscape has given rise to a new type of product category called connectivity management orchestration (CMO) platforms, which ride on top of IoT CMPs through API integrations, pioneered by vendors like IoTM Solutions and Simetric. Several IoT CMP vendors and IoT MVNOs have also introduced CMO capabilities. AT&T is an example of a mobile operators that have fully embraced the CMO concept and announced together with Simetric the introduction of the IoT Console Single Pane of Glass in November 2024. Enea is another example of a vendor that provides adjacent products. Its IoT CCS service works in concert with existing IoT CMPs and enables mobile operators to offer a multi-tenant, private APN service to their enterprise customers.

Uptake in the IoT market has been slow compared to the adoption in the consumer market, as solutions based on the eSIM M2M specification, originally published in 2013, have not met the intended goals of enabling widescale adoption of remote SIM provisioning and eSIMs. After the publication of the new eSIM IoT specification SGP.32 in 2023, eSIM solution providers are now gearing up for a new adoption cycle of solutions based on the specification. New deployments benefit from the large existing installed base of SM-DP+ systems, which will be used for both consumer and IoT eSIM services. The development of eSIM solutions for the IoT market has been driven by both incumbent SIM providers such as Thales, Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) and IDEMIA, as well as newer entrants like Kigen. The shift to eSIM has attracted a large number of other players into the space. With the transition to SGP.32, vendors like Redtea Mobile and Monty Mobile which were previously mainly active in the consumer eSIM market have also started to address the IoT market. Berg Insight estimates that roughly 10 percent of the global installed base of cellular IoT devices used an eSIM at the end of 2024.

This report answers the following questions:

• Which trends and developments are shaping the IoT CMP and eSIM solution markets?
• What are the benefits of using commercial IoT CMPs?
• Why are enterprises adopting connectivity management orchestration (CMO) platforms?
• Who are the leading providers of IoT CMPs and eSIM solutions?
• How does the new eSIM IoT specification SGP.32 differ from earlier specifications?
• What impact will eSIM and SGP.32-based solutions have on the IoT market?
• Which mobile operators have deployed IoT CMPs from third party vendors?
• What is the potential market size for IoT CMPs?