Berg Insight says that global cellular IoT connections grew an impressive 22 percent in 2021.
According to the company’s analysts, global cellular IoT connections reached 2.1 billion last year.
No particular region stood out for growth. The major regional markets of China, Western Europe, and North America grew similarly during the year as the world recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, China continues to lead the way for cellular IoT connections.
China Mobile remains the world’s largest provider of cellular IoT connectivity services, with an estimated 801 million cellular IoT connections. China Unicom and China Telecom ranked second and third with 300 million and 297 million connections, respectively.
Among the Western operators, Vodafone comes out on top with 142 million connections, followed by AT&T with 95 million.
Deutsche Telekom and Verizon had in the range of 45–55 million cellular IoT connections each (when counting T-Mobile USA’s customers as part of DT’s IoT subscriber base.)
Telefónica, KDDI, and Orange round off the top ten with about 31 million, 23 million, and 20 million connections, respectively.
By 2026, Berg Insight now forecasts that 4.3 billion IoT devices will be connected to cellular networks worldwide.
(Photo by VD Photography on Unsplash)
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