Can satellite connectivity help mobile IoT reach for the stars?

This edition of the Industry Checkpoint series focuses on IoT, highlighting how the market has changed in the last six months and its implications. The report considers four major developments: the ramping up of commercial services based on SGP.32; LoRaWAN IoT integrating with the cellular and satellite ecosystems; momentum building for commercial offerings integrating NTN and cellular IoT; and eRedCap being positioned as a cost-efficient path to 5G for the next generation of IoT devices.

Direct-to-device (D2D) satellite connectivity has emerged as a notable development in the mobile ecosystem, promising to extend basic mobile services beyond the reach of terrestrial networks. It has the potential to enhance coverage in remote and underserved areas and to provide an additional layer of resilience for emergency communications. While the technology has clear benefits, is advancing rapidly and is attracting significant attention, its practical role remains constrained by fundamental limitations in capacity and spectral efficiency. This report examines the impact of different constellation and spectrum scenarios on D2D’s capabilities.

The benefits of quantum computing come from the order-of-magnitude increase in computational power compared to conventional computers. This enables a range of use cases from predictive analytics to pharmaceutical simulations. However, there are also risks, primarily related to security vulnerabilities. Overall, we estimate around 8% of IoT devices currently in active use are quantum safe. Conversely, over 90% (i.e. nearly all) of IoT devices are exposed. The exposure risk for telcos comes at multiple levels, including networks, billing systems, consumer devices and IoT. The focus in this report is on the IoT dimension because it represents the largest universe of devices, is highly disparate and is particularly open to security risks due to the ageing nature of many assets deployed today.