Author: Ivo Rook | CEO, 1NCE
IoT is everywhere — in water meters, shipment trackers and city sensors. Most people never see it, but expect it to work.
And it keeps growing. Cellular IoT connections reached 4.2 billion at the end of 2025 (Berg Insight), and total IoT connections are forecast to pass 40 billion by 2034 (Transforma Insights).
Demand is not the problem. Scale is. Too many projects stall between pilot and rollout because the setup is too complex: one carrier per country, contracts that don’t match the life of the product, and costs nobody can predict.
I believe MVNOs are best placed to fix this. Here’s why.
A market that needs a different approach
A smartphone user wants fast downloads and a strong signal. A water meter sits in a basement, sends a few bytes a day, and nobody touches it for 12 years. A container tracker crosses six borders in three months. These devices need a setup that works the first time, a price that doesn’t change at the border, and a connection that’s still there years later.
Most mobile business models were built for people, not for products. They charge for speed and volume and sell country by country — a poor fit for a sensor built to last a decade. This is where MVNOs have an edge. We don’t own radio networks we need to fill, so we can start with the customer’s problem and build connectivity around it.
Analysts have concluded there is no one-size-fits-all model for IoT connectivity, and that providers must rethink how they serve the market. My conclusion: the winners won’t sell the most connectivity. They’ll make it easiest to use.
Data without intelligence means nothing. That’s why we bundle software into every connection we sell — device authentication, cloud integration, remote diagnostics, GPS-free location, energy optimisation. That’s the shift every MVNO should make: from selling SIMs to delivering outcomes.
From local players to global enablers
IoT is international by default. A product is designed in Germany, built in Asia and sold in 30 countries. Managing a separate carrier, contract and compliance setup in every market quickly kills the business case.
And the rules keep tightening — from permanent roaming restrictions to data sovereignty requirements. Customers need a partner who handles that complexity for them.
MVNOs were born without borders. Instead of being anchored to one home network, we build on partnerships with operators around the world and bring them together in one service.
That simplicity is why our customers rely on us to keep their connected products online worldwide. Many of them operate in dozens of countries yet manage everything through one platform and one contract.
The opportunity ahead
It would be easy to read the market numbers as a land grab. Global cellular IoT connectivity revenues are expected to grow from €14.5 billion in 2025 to €21.5 billion by 2030 (Berg Insight). But the real opportunity is to change how that market works for the businesses that depend on it.
Too many companies still bend their products around the way connectivity is sold — country by country, contract by contract, tool by tool. The MVNOs that succeed will challenge that: how technology is built, how we work with customers, and how we make money.
That’s a much bigger role than an alternative operator. It’s the partner who makes IoT work.
On 4 November at MVNO Nation Europe in Alicante, I look forward to exploring why MVNOs are so well positioned to lead this next chapter of IoT growth — and what it takes to turn that opportunity into a scalable business.
