How Verizon Business plans on becoming an IoT one stop shop

The premise of the Internet of Things (IoT), to connect and manage “things” so that they can collect, exchange and analyse data has always posed a significant market opportunity for telecom service providers because many IoT apps need the high bandwidth and low latency of 5G in order to work properly. To date IoT uptake has been slower than anticipated, but the rollout of 5G networks is now opening the door to more IoT deployments. 

That said, business outcomes require more than simply the brawn of more powerful networks, they require the intelligence provided by the data, and that needs a sensor-to-cloud platform to enable applications. For Verizon Business this platform is ThingSpace, and the apps on it are increasing.

ThingSpace

Verizon ThingSpace was launched 10 years ago. It enables customers to manage device connectivity, activate devices on the Verizon network, troubleshoot issues and monitor device performance. It also provides its ThingSpace marketplace which offers sim cards, connectivity plans, payment, billing and asset tracking capabilities, as well as networking hardware. ThingSpace is designed as a platform from which to service and support any IoT application by centrally managing end-to-end connectivity. Verizon says that it has 4,700 devices certified for the platform and connects 17 million transactions every day, processing 1.2 billion events.

Clearly Verizon has transactional connectivity scale in its primary geographical market but it has (as have many communication service providers) struggled to show up for customers at a global scale.  To address this the company has developed a holistic global strategy, providing global IoT roaming for customers needing global wireless and non-terrestrial network connectivity; global IoT bootstrap for eSIM device connectivity; as well as global IoT orchestration where Verizon acts as the prime carrier working with its carrier partners to deliver localised connectivity services.

Aside from being able to deliver globally for customers, Verizon is also making sure it develops its IoT Connected Solution Portfolio in a way that makes it technically intelligible to both customers and sales teams, using buying behaviour data from the broader Verizon Business portfolio to target customers and prospects.

IoT Connected Solution portfolio

With its IoT portfolio, Shamik Basu, Verizon Business VP Strategic Connectivity Products, asserts that:

Verizon is really making inroads into the auto space winning against competitors because we can provide a global solution with ThingSpace. 

Verizon Business recently launched its Edge Transportation Exchange which is a mobile network vehicle to everything (V2X) communication platform for connected vehicles. Volkswagen Group of America (VW) is one of the first customers to sign up for it. The Edge Transportation Exchange uses Verizon’s 5G and LTE networks, low latency mobile Edge computing (MEC) and geolocation technology to send alerts, messages and data between connected vehicles and infrastructure in near real-time.

In 2023, the carrier launched its MEC Network-as-a-Service capability that delivers a private mobile network, edge computing, SD-WAN and satellite connectivity to customer locations via a trailer, so that they can have an instant scalable private 5G network and edge capabilities on site, managed locally without needing to build and maintain their own infrastructure. It also has a partnership in place with Aeris, which delivers a global IoT platform and connectivity solution that includes eSIM orchestrations that Verizon uses.

The partnership with Aeris is proving particularly good at helping Verizon develop its IoT business. As Basu says, “eSIM is a great unlock paradigm and bootstrapping is an essential capability that we can provide globally in lockstep with our carrier partners.” It means that each device has a pre-installed profile so that it can connect to a network when first activated.

Verizon Business has also launched its own IoT apps, such as its vehicle tracking system designed to support fleet management that provides managers with a dashcam view of their fleet’s daily operations using GPS tracking. This is currently being adopted by Olmsted Falls Police Department in Ohio to streamline patrolling operations and increase fleet visibility, deploying the fleet management software, body cameras and offline car apps to improve fuel cost management, idle time reduction and officer safety.

As for the future, Basu explains: 

We are clear-eyed about where we want to go. The platform will evolve to embrace SGP-32 (a GSMA spec for managing eSIMS in IoT devices), as both customers and partners are interested in this. We will continue to invest in global delivery, and we will continue to show up in the market with a tech presence. We are targeting segments such as autonomous cars and heavy equipment automation.

Daniel Johnson, Verizon AVP, IoT & Managed Connectivity Platforms adds:

Speaking to AI, there is a massive growth of IoT connected things. We are entering an era of intelligent things with AI becoming the brains behind connecting things. For example, video cameras are just data endpoints that can be infused into an edge AI model, but decisions about images need to be made in 10-15 milliseconds.

 Verizon Business has just launched its ThingSpace 5G Video Insights solution, providing information back in near realtime by AI enabling IP cameras.

My take

Verizon Business is a 5G titan in the US and its IoT customer base in North America is growing, but as regards its global aspirations there is, as the company itself admits, a lot more work to do. It needs far more non-American module manufacturers and OEMs to adopt ThingSpace as their IoT platform of choice in order to deliver a global one-stop shop for IoT.