1.5 billion smart meters in 2020 will drive M2M in the utilities sector

It's exciting times for Machina Research as we published our report on the M2M market in the utilities sector last week. Utilities have been using M2M-style monitoring equipment for decades so the market is not a new one. However we expect the segment to see very rapid growth over the next 10 years driven by government intervention in the form of legal requirements for smart meter deployment, stimulus packages for smart grid roll-outs and wider installation of electric vehicle charging points.

Machina Research’s Connected Intelligence report Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication in the Utilities Sector 2010-20 forecasts the following:

  • The number of M2M connections in the utilities industry will grow from 100 million in 2010 to 1.5 billion in 2020, of which 99% will be smart meters.


  • Cellular connections will ultimately dominate, growing from 38% to 57% of installed base by 2020. Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), including powerline communications (PLC) and community WiFi connections, will also be significant, accounting for 28% of connections in 2020, albeit down from 53% in 2010. Of the wireless wide area connections, 3G is will dominate.


  • The total market for M2M in the utilities segment will be worth EUR24 billion in 2020, up from EUR4 billion in 2010 and having peaked at EUR28 billion in 2017. From 2017 onwards the number of new additions starts to decline, resulting in a reduction in device, installation and provisioning revenue. The largest region in revenue terms is Emerging Asia-Pacific, courtesy of China’s significant investments in utilities upgrades. By 2020 China will account for 40% of global M2M utilities connections and 31% of revenue.


Pure traffic revenue, that is the revenue associated with carrying bits, is tiny. Excluding device, installation, provisioning and other associated services, mobile traffic revenue will amount to only EUR50 million worldwide in 2010, growing to EUR1.2 billion by 2020. Proportionately that is 1% of total revenue growing to 5%. The revenue opportunity for M2M in the utilities sector does not lie in carrying traffic. Mobile network operators must be involved in other associated elements of the service provision if they are to secure a significant portion of the EUR190 billion that will be generated between 2011 and 2020 in the sector.

About the report

Machine-to-machine (M2M) Communication in the Utilities Sector 2010-20 provides invaluable qualitative and quantitative analysis of the emerging opportunity for machine-to-machine communications in the utilities sector.

The report reviews the major drivers and barriers for growth of M2M in the utilities sector and analyses the key market dynamics, including how MNOs, fixed operators, service providers and vendors might go about identifying and realising addressable opportunities. Each application is examined individually with case studies and forecast analysis.

The forecast excel data sheet includes very granular 10 year market forecasts for 54 countries and 6 regions. The forecast covers numbers of connections, traffic and revenue for each of the three applications (electric vehicle charging, smart metering and transport & distribution management) with splits by technology (2G, 3G, 4G, short range, MAN, fixed WAN and satellite) and a break-out of mobile traffic revenue.

To get hold of a copy of the executive summary, table of contents and a blank sample data sheet, email me.

The price of the report is EUR4,000 + VAT. To order your copy, find out more about the report or to discuss annual subscriptions please contact our sales team.

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