IoT and enterprise markets: five trends to watch in 2026

To help navigate the year ahead, we are releasing a series of reports that highlight the key trends to watch in 2025 and the implications for ecosystem players. The analysis covers five key areas: 5G and network transformation; spectrum; IoT and the wider enterprise market; the digital consumer; and fixed and pay-TV markets. This Insight Spotlight addresses IoT and the wider enterprise market.

As the telecoms industry and wider digital ecosystem evolve at an unprecedented rate, regularly assessing major developments and their implications is more important than ever. GSMA Intelligence's new Industry Checkpoint series helps navigate how the market is changing, identify the trends that matter and understand the implications.

eSIM technology can help solve a number of issues for low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) as they scale into large-scale deployments. These issues include the higher cost and complexity of provisioning devices with physical SIM cards, device and lifecycle management, and higher opex due to required human intervention. The greater the adoption and spread of LPWAN, the greater the operational challenges for IoT service providers – but eSIM can address most of these challenges.