China accounted for 63% of the global installed base of cellular IoT connections at the end of last year, according to a new research by Swedish IoT analyst firm Berg Insight.
The report highlighted that the global number of cellular IoT subscribers increased by 70% during 2018 to reach 1.2 billion.
The global number of cellular IoT connections is expected to reach 9 million by 2023, according to the research firm.
“China is deploying cellular IoT technology at a monumental scale”, said Tobias Ryberg, principal analyst at Berg Insight. “According to data from the Chinese mobile operators, the installed base in the country grew by 124% year-on-year to reach 767 million at the end of 2018. The country has now surpassed Europe and North America in terms of penetration rate, with 54.7 IoT connections per 100 inhabitants.”
Berg Insight said that the Chinese government is actively driving adoption of cellular IoT technology as a tool for achieving domestic and economic policy goals. At the same time, the private sector in China is implementing the technology to improve efficiency and drive innovation.
Berg Insight believes that the role of the government is the main explanation for why China is ahead of the rest of the world in the adoption of IoT. Like other advanced economies, the country has widespread adoption of connected cars, fleet management, smart metering, asset monitoring and other traditional applications for cellular IoT.
The monthly ARPU for cellular IoT connectivity services in China was only € 0.22 ($ 0.25) compared to € 0.70 ($ 0.78) in Europe.
The study also revealed that global revenues from cellular IoT connectivity services increased by 19% in 2018 to reach € 6.7 billion ($7.52 billion). The ten largest players had a combined revenue share of around 80%.
