Global 5G IoT Roaming Connections to Grow over 800% in Four Years
A new study by Juniper Research, the foremost experts in roaming markets, has found the global number of 5G IoT roaming connections will rise from 15 million in 2023 to 142 million by 2027, representing over 27% of all 5G roaming connections in four years. 5G IoT Roaming Connections
It predicted that this growth will be driven by the acceleration of 5G standalone deployments, with intensifying rollouts in home markets providing increased momentum and a strong value proposition for 5G standalone-specific roaming agreements.
Standalone networks provide greater network functionality over non-standalone 5G networks by leveraging next-generation network cores to provide these greater network speeds and latency to 5G IoT roaming connections; improving the value proposition of a roaming model.
Research Identifies West Europe as Key Market for 5G IoT Roaming
The research forecast that 21% of global 5G IoT roaming connections in 2027 will be found in West Europe, despite only accounting for 5% of the global population. It identified leading efforts from operators in the region to launch 5G standalone networks as key to incentivizing IoT users to implement a roaming business model, thus driving the growth of IoT roaming connections.
Report author Elisha Sudlow-Poole commented: “To further capitalise on the growth of 5G IoT roaming in West Europe, operators must form roaming agreements that leverage standalone 5G networks to improve network performance for roaming connections, and provide the same level of service when roaming as they do on home networks.”
Juniper Research predicted that amidst the growth of 5G roamers, emerging traffic analytics and anti-fraud solutions must enable the enhanced identification and
authentication of roaming connections over 5G networks. However, given the increased complexity of 5G networks, Juniper Research anticipated current
roaming analytics services will be insufficient in monitoring 5G roaming connections, and the subsequent increase in mobile roaming data.
To maximise the benefits from these new 5G roaming services, operators must invest in 5G NGCs (Next-generation Cores), which are highly virtualised and can more efficiently assess traffic and connectivity. By deploying NGCs, roaming
vendors can better protect networks’ processing power and signalling capabilities amidst rising levels of roaming data consumption. This will ensure a continuous level of service essential to attracting high-spending enterprise customers.
An inability to detect roaming connections that use valuable network bandwidth risks diminishing the user experience for the operator’s own subscribers. To maintain high-quality services for their subscribers, operators must invest in roaming solutions that can efficiently identify roaming connections that consume
large amounts of cellular data.
Value-added Services Key to Managing Revenue Leakage
In addition to 5G standalone-specific roaming agreements, the report urged operators to implement roaming analytics tools that leverage AI to maximise roaming revenue, as they enable operators to efficiently assess the significant amount of roaming data generated by 5G roaming connections in real-time.
The report anticipated that key verticals, such as autonomous vehicles, will necessitate these advanced roaming solutions, owing to their data-centric nature. With this, the research emphasised that roaming analytics must be integrated directly into platforms to maximise their value proposition to network operators and enable swifter reconciliation of clearing for stakeholders.
