Twilio a threat to operators IoT connectivity business

An article by Tom Rebbeck, Research Director Enterprise and IoT at Analysys Mason.

Most operators with a focus on IoT are exploring ways to move into the provision of other services, from hardware to applications, despite earning 90% of IoT revenue from connectivity.

The launch of Twilio’s IoT connectivity offer, in April 2018, shows the threat to the basic connectivity business. If operators fail to address the threat of companies like Twilio, they may lose connectivity business without ever gaining traction in other parts of the value chain

Twilio’s core business, to aggregate access to telecoms services like voice and SMS and make them accessible to developers through a set of APIs, would not exist if telecoms operators had done a better job of meeting developer needs. As telecoms operators focus on the more complex aspects of IoT solutions, which often need professional services skills such as system design and integration, they risk ignoring part of the market. Cheap connectivity solutions, like NB-IoT, need automation, not systems integration.

[Editors note : See also

IoT Intelligent Transportation Systems with Twilio Sync 

]