Infographic: IoT – the rise of enterprise

Monetisation is the key objective in 2026 for telcos on APIs (as with other business lines) and their distribution partners, with the implications for go-to-market strategies being different depending on the API and buyer. It is important to quantify the commercial potential and buying likelihood of APIs across different sectors of the economy to accurately orient supply. To that end, GSMA Intelligence has developed the Open Gateway Demand Index, which aggregates a range of metrics to help understand where demand lies and the commercial opportunity for network APIs in each sector.

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.

This report analyses the state of 5G, seven years after its commercial launch, using GSMA Intelligence’s 5G Connectivity Index to benchmark 46 markets across 5G infrastructure and services. It shows broad convergence across the foundation components (coverage, affordability, adoption), but reveals a widening gap on advanced capabilities, including 5G standalone (SA), 5G‑Advanced, uplink performance, fixed wireless access (FWA), IoT and RedCap.