Vodafone's Multi-Million Market NB-IoT Deal is, Well, Pretty Massive

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer explore the mobile ecosystem implications of UK-based Vodafone's preparing to announce the largest IoT airtime supply deal outside of China, encompassing millions of NB-IoT connections.

Their discussion highlighted:

• The deal, with a yet unnamed manufacturer, breaks the million-mark threshold on connection volume, and it's the beginning of what they see as large OEMs coming to market, and this is purportedly the first market to be built only for IoT.
• How the viability and ultimate success of the Vodaone NB-IoT network is predicated on solving the billing, roaming, and interoperability issues that have stymied prior CSP cellular IoT service rollouts.
• Vodafone's NB-IoT addresses 55 in-network market segments with the potential to reach over 180 segments.
• The current Vodafone offering uses LTE capabilities although 5G can potentially make the NB-IoT service more suitable for emerging use cases related to transportation, fleet management, and warehousing.

Shelly and Ron concur that the Vodafone NB-IoT network is a breakthrough for confirming CSP ability to offer and manage massive IoT services and that Vodafone's €12.99 deal for 10 years of NB-IoT airtime is a tremendous value.