• IoT services players are feeling increasing consolidation pressure
• Telenor, already a significant player, plans to create a unified global IoT business from its existing operations
• Using the Telenor IoT brand, the telco’s Connexion unit will aim to propel Telenor into the top-five IoT players outside China

In an effort to gain even greater scale in a hotly contested sector, Telenor is consolidating its Nordic and international internet of things (IoT) operations under the Telenor Connexion unit and, in so doing, creating what it calls a “unified global IoT powerhouse”. 

The operator had previously formed Telenor Connexion to manage all of its international IoT operations, leaving the Nordic businesses to manage their domestic IoT operations but now the telco is bringing everything IoT under the  Connexion roof, a move that “strengthens Telenor’s position as a leading provider of managed IoT solutions, enabling customers to benefit from a more streamlined, scalable and innovative service offering,” it stated in an announcement about the move. 

This goes a step further than the IoT consolidation Telenor announced in 2021 when it went nearly (but not quite) all of the way into bringing its IoT operations together. 

Telenor has steadily built up a commanding position in IoT having invested heavily in the technology over the past 20 years and is now one of the world’s biggest IoT providers. In January this year, the company had more than 25 million IoT devices in use across 200 countries, based on more than 500 mobile networks around the world. Mats Lundquist, the CEO of Telenor Connexion and the head of Telenor IoT, stated: “We have high growth ambitions and our vision is to be among the top-five IoT providers globally, excluding China.”

Currently, the top-five global IoT companies headquartered outside of China are Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, IBM and Siemens. 

The IoT sector continues to grow at an impressive rate, driven by ever-rising demand for connected devices across swathes of industries, including automotive, manufacturing and smart cities, and the specialised Telenor IoT brand and business unit is expected to permit it “to strengthen its number-one position in the region and accelerate growth, while responding to evolving market dynamics. As part of the consolidation exercise, the establishment of Telenor Connexion will see the unit enjoying the transfer of millions of SIM cards to it as well as lucrative recurring revenues.

Telenor’s move is also designed to help it develop a “more scalable organisation” in anticipation of exploring the many opportunities evident in the IoT services sector, given that the value of the global IoT sector (excluding China) is expected to grow to be worth some $30bn by 2030. 

“This consolidation is about unlocking scale and accelerating growth. By bringing our IoT capabilities together under Telenor Connexion and our portfolio brand, Telenor IoT, we are creating a stronger platform to serve customers across the Nordics and globally, while capturing the opportunities of a rapidly expanding market,” stated Dan Ouchterlony, head of Telenor Amp, the operator’s tech investment unit that manages and develops companies deemed to have the potential to fit comfortably (and profitably) within Telenor’s core telecom operations.

Telenor Amp was established in 2022 and focuses on IoT and security services. It manages a range of companies, some of which are partially or fully owned by Telenor. A particularly interesting aspect of Telenor Amp’s raison d’être is to apply a ‘develop-or-divest’ strategy, whereby the businesses in Amp’s portfolio are either nurtured for continued growth or quickly sold off at a profit to bolster the balance sheet before they can, well, unbalance it.

Telenor is ambitious and in a hurry. It has announced that the reorganisation should be done and dusted by the end of January 2026, “with no disruption to existing customer services”.

– Martyn Warwick, Editor in Chief, TelecomTV