Vodafone’s standalone IoT enterprise is doubling down on international attain, platform consistency, and SIM innovation – to dominate an evolving and fragmented mobile IoT market.
Strategic spin-out – Vodafone IoT explains its new unbiased flex within the international IoT market by way of scale and velocity, agility – in time for the eSIM/iSIM revolution.
Unique proposition – Vodafone IoT is pushing its GDSP platform because the gold normal for enterprise IoT orchestration, as a wrapper on a proposition MVNOs can not contact.
Native optimisation – Vodafone IoT makes clear its US pitch, for inbound and outbound international accounts (not native contracts), help by native workers throughout all departments.
Vodafone (IoT) needs to speak about sustainability, ultimately. “That’s the most enjoyable factor of all of this,” says Erik Kling, president and head of Americas for the UK telco group’s IoT enterprise, responding to a wrap-up query about ‘what’s new’, having spoken at some size already in regards to the make-up of the sector, and his personal employer’s function inside it. It’s a great tech-for-good story, in fact, which needs to be advised. “We’re serving to to streamline operations; we’re slicing vitality consumption in provide chains,” he provides.
Vodafone estimates it has enabled its prospects to avoid wasting a cumulative equal of 47.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (tCO2 equal; 47.6 million tonnes CO2e) since 2020; it has “enabled the avoidance” of 32.8 million tCO2 within the “final 12 months” alone, says Kling. Which is an astonishing charge of acceleration – and about “75 instances the emissions” from its personal operations. He factors to exterior IoT mechanisms like “real-time” monitoring and monitoring (as per topical comms about water conservation) and inner net-zero targets “to be utterly inexperienced in 2030”.
There’s extra in Vodafone Group’s carbon discount plan, printed final week. RCR Wi-fi will take one other look, time allowing; however the message, even right here, moderately underlines the opposite confusion, which the previous dialogue with Kling has sought to make clear – about which of its applied sciences, bought through which of its companies, are delivering such environmental returns and enterprise positive aspects. As a result of Vodafone’s IoT unit was break up from the mothership greater than 12 months in the past (April 2024), and but the gross sales construction, not less than, remains to be just a little onerous to understand (for RCR, anyway).
So can we simply handle that, rapidly – Vodafone Group, Vodafone UK, Vodafone Enterprise, Vodafone IoT, and the way these companies work collectively and aside? And in addition: how Vodafone IoT even works within the US with out infrastructure of its personal, the place rival companies have tied-up many of the outdated M2M sector? (The inexperienced IoT story must wait.) Kling says: “We’re a separate entity, which remains to be 100-percent owned by Vodafone Group – that half has not modified. We spun IoT out for a number of causes: primary is for scale, quantity two is for scope, and quantity three is for velocity.”
He goes on: “It was additionally to speculate additional into this. As a result of whenever you have a look at platform growth and international attain, you want additional funding. And we did this additionally due to all of the eSIM and iSIM growth, which adjustments the dynamics for each current and new prospects all over the world.”
The final remark is a telling one in regards to the shifting energy dynamics within the IoT market – that the pursuit of flexibility and scale, partly enabled by the brand new SGP.32 eSIM framework, prompted arguably the largest identify in mobile IoT to reorganise itself utterly.
However simply to complete this structural discuss; Kling explains Vodafone IoT, wherever it’s primarily based, goes mob-handed with native group enterprise divisions and operator corporations to answer enterprise RFPs, as required. He says: “We work carefully collectively. I’ve a [US] workforce devoted simply to Vodafone Enterprise; we reply collectively. We’re one account workforce [with customers], as nicely. The identical with the working corporations across the globe; we work collectively to ship providers, contracts, and all the pieces else for Vodafone Enterprise prospects. That hasn’t modified.”
In different phrases, Vodafone Enterprise stays the grasp integrator for the UK agency’s international enterprise proposition, recruiting Vodafone IoT to tug collectively the IoT components, as required, and native operator items to plug in native airtime, or else to dovetail on group roaming agreements. However Vodafone IoT has the liberty, as nicely, to pursue enterprise by itself phrases, presumably, and the brand new flexibility, crucially, to work throughout the fragmented ecosystem to mix bespoke {hardware} and software program into large-scale IoT deployments, connected to a worldwide SIM proposition.
One thing like that, anyway; a view of the US setup helps. Kling was the corporate’s first IoT recruit within the US, 15 years in the past, having labored within the (pre-iPhone) smartphone market, and within the (pre-IoT) M2M module market earlier than. “I used to be worker number-one,” he says. “And our mission has by no means modified: to take US-headquartered accounts international. Again within the day, the core proposition was ‘one SIM, one platform, one service’ – on 760 networks, in 180 nations. That was the case in 2010, and it’s the case now, in 2025 – and it’s unmatched within the international IoT house.”
The depth and scale of its attain is the factor, he says. Vodafone won’t have a community within the US, however it’s promoting outbound IoT options with inbound IoT help – “industrial, monetary, technical; answer architects, any sort of gross sales help”, he says. “Nobody depends on a 1-800 international help quantity; everyone seems to be within the nation.” Its greatest US-based shoppers are all from outdated M2M sectors: automotive, healthcare, industrial, and largely geared round monitoring and telematics, with sufficient entrenched scale and regulatory crimson tape to hunt out a Vodafone-sized provider.
The purpose right here, as nicely, is that Vodafone IoT delivers wide-area monitoring and monitoring on public networks in international markets, and Vodafone Enterprise delivers local-area monitoring and monitoring on personal networks in regional markets; typically they cross over, and typically Vodafone IoT is recruited for campus-style IoT, as nicely – for manufacturing traces and equipment, and such. However it’s the distinction between IoT-for-industry and industrial-IoT, successfully. Kling says of the US agency’s IoT remit: “It may very well be monitoring, it may very well be HVAC; all of it goes collectively as (IoT for {industry}).”
So is Vodafone IoT within the US delivering IoT options in-market, as nicely – to for the US-based operations of US-based companies, in addition to for his or her worldwide footprints? Kling responds: “There are other ways. It may very well be that an organization needs Vodafone to deploy all of their international providers, regardless of the place – and that the US is a part of it. Almost definitely they select Vodafone [IoT US] if that [global] portion is not less than 50 %. However that has modified over time, as a result of we’ve got robust companions throughout North, Central, Latin America. So you might see a home portion of it, up to a degree the place it is smart. However we aren’t actually competing domestically. That’s not our candy spot.”
He segments IoT into three enterprise sorts: as inbound, outbound, and home visitors. Vodafone IoT US / US performs level for the primary sort, as nicely, he says. “We’re working to convey European, South African, Indian, Australian accounts into the US, as nicely – as a result of they’re already with Vodafone in these areas, and it’s a pure enlargement. They don’t need a second platform, a second contract, a second infrastructure. It’s simply simpler to work with the US workforce. So these are the 2 candy spots – outbound and inbound. The home portion is just not in our core technique.”
He provides: “There isn’t a task within the home IoT market within the US for vitality metering, issues like that. We now have no core worth proposition to go after these sorts of verticals within the US. When you’ve got a worldwide transferring utility, like asset monitoring, container monitoring, which strikes across the globe and in some unspecified time in the future comes into the US, after which leaves the US once more, that’s a unique story.” So what about Landis+Gyr supplying a sensible meter into the US market with a Vodafone SIM? “That’s global-inbound enterprise; a European-headquartered account within the international market.”
Proper; and why would a US-headquartered enterprise not hand its international outbound IoT footprint to AT&T, say – a US firm with a correct profile in international M2M telematics, in all probability already supplying it with native SIMs for laptops and workers? Kling cites its unique one-platform IoT proposition, as above – particularly its cloud-based GDSP (International Knowledge Service Platform) administration platform. He says: “It comes again to that. We now have scaled it over 15 years, and by no means modified it. We now have been very constant. We offer the dimensions, scope, options; it’s unmatched available in the market.”
Which is kind of a declare, given the novel disruption round international IoT airtime provision in recent times. Kling traces this “motion on the platform aspect” again a decade-and-half, and presents the Vodafone counter-narrative about stability, reliability, longevity. “IoT is not only a nice-to-have anymore, however a need-to-have – in automotive, healthcare, logistics. If the IoT surroundings stops working, then planes don’t take off, ships don’t depart the port. And international enterprises need a accomplice they’ve confidence in – that this accomplice will ship the providers they’re anticipating.”
He provides: “That was our complete level from the very starting.”
However this energy play in IoT airtime provision is ramping-up. A brand new breed of worldwide digital community operator (MVNO) has emerged, in recent times, with nimbler cloud-based setups, globally out there and domestically compliant, which declare to have the ability to outmaneuver large regional carriers (MNOs) – to the purpose some MNOs are even investing in MVNOs, and placing international IoT gross sales their approach. In the meantime, others have reimagined the outdated MVNO enabler (MVNE) proposition as a buts-and-bolts international MNO-enablement proposition, to help sure of Vodafone’s friends within the international market.
Kling says: “Sure, we’re conscious, and we have to be conscious. There are execs and cons, and variations. An MVNO might by no means have the entry we’ve got; we personal quite a lot of networks across the globe, which is a bonus no person else has. MVNOs won’t ever have the dimensions – of Vodafone Germany, Vodafone UK, Vodafone South Africa, Vodafone you-name-it. That’s simply unattainable. Some MVNOs are deploying international infrastructure in a sensible approach, however some are struggling as nicely. It comes again to the core worth proposition – [of global] entry and [local] help.
“If a buyer solely operates in a single nation or area, then it has totally different necessities, and the aggressive panorama is totally different as nicely. It’s actually all in regards to the buyer’s wants and the regional scope. However if you wish to be a worldwide market chief within the IoT house, it’s about that core proposition – one SIM, one infrastructure, one platform – which [we have made] very agile via our new setup, so have quicker choice making, and all the pieces is in-house, inside Vodafone IoT. No person else has that surroundings – I might say.” We’re again to the beginning, once more.
And what about this parallel eSIM narrative, the place the brand new SGP.32 switching mechanic shifts the IoT energy dynamic additional away from the unique MNO brigade – or from IoT airtime suppliers, of all kinds? “We embrace it. You haven’t any selection however to embrace it. It’s a pure evolution, which makes IoT simpler and higher for purchasers. And Vodafone is all in regards to the requirements, in fact; we’re engaged on the frontline with all requirements.… We needs to be prepared with SGP.32 by the top of this 12 months. We’re working within the background… We now have the infrastructure and the ecosystem companions to be prepared in time.”
(Simply as context, SGP.32-based eSIM gadgets and platforms are being examined for interoperability, presently, and can begin to emerge via the top of 2025, and discover correct industrial scale via 2026. Analyst home Kaleido Intelligence expects a tipping level in 2027/28, when over 50 % of latest IoT connections will use an eSIM – and newly-issued SGP.32 IoT profiles will probably be “on a stage with” M2M SGP.02 profiles. Price noting: SGP.02 eSIMs have a ‘lengthy tail’ on the grounds that automotive and utility prospects are locked into lengthy buy cycles.)
Does the SGP.3 promise of distant airtime switching, handing the initiative to the client, put the next premium on service? Or is the specter of churn overplayed? “It’s in regards to the steadiness, proper? Particularly on this {industry}, which is all the time coping with change – with 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, now 6G, and all of the totally different flavours of IoT; and with the worldwide range in all of that, the place 2G and 3G are gone within the US, say, and the place it’s totally different in Europe or Asia. For patrons, it’s like, ‘Ugh, what do I do?’ What product technique is smart all over the world?
“And so it’s good to have a accomplice that is aware of the roadmap and has the imaginative and prescient, the contacts, the community entry. Which may present a consultancy service… We now have tailored to all these know-how and community adjustments early. Which is why we don’t see a lot hazard that prospects will all of the sudden say, ‘Hey, I can get a greater deal over right here’. As a result of that isn’t the worth proposition. While you go together with Vodafone, you will have the biggest accomplice for IoT on the earth, and we’re hyper-scaling connectivity for crucial IoT providers.”
Time to wrap up; we’ll discuss with Vodafone about sustainability with IoT one other time.
