If a major telecommunications network is hacked, millions of customers’ connections will be abruptly disrupted, causing widespread societal panic and economic loss. And as illustrated by the recent attack on Verizon and AT&T by Chinese hackers, telco breaches can impact national security posture, too.
SIM Card Demand to Recover in 2024, but Slow Down After
Global Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card shipments were down -7.2% in 2023, reaching 4.09 billion units. This downward growth trend was primarily caused by reduced demand for consumer electronics devices and a stronger-than-expected impact of eSIM in the United States.
Working in a competitive industry demands that you become a data-driven organization. As a technology solution provider, effectively leveraging data can unlock significant advantages, such as driving market expansion and fostering innovation. Unfortunately, all too many companies lack an analytical approach to decision-making.
Signaling was a major security vulnerability for legacy cellular generations (2G, 3G, and 4G), opening the gate to signaling storms, SS7 and Diameter-based exploitation, spam, and fraud. While it’s easy to assume 5G networks would be immune to such cyberattacks, this isn’t the case. Many 5G deployments are hybrid (also using legacy connectivity) and are Non-Standalone (NSA), making it essential that signaling continues to be a core focus of telco security solutions. Even for 5G Standalone (SA) networks, threat actors will adapt and leverage more elaborate schemes.
Embedded cellular connectivity by nature is not static, in terms of both its ability to serve moving objects, and the fact it provides a secure cellular channel that can enable dynamic future-looking capabilities. It is abundantly clear that cellular-enabled IoT connections will grow exponentially over the next 5 years, forecast to increase from 1.5 billion in 2023 to 6.5 billion by 2030. There is a clear demand for cellular as enterprises look to unlock digital transformation strategies. Enterprises are looking toward cellular as a connectivity technology that is reliable, wide reaching, global in nature, and future proof, as well as being a technology that can address the pain points of today and one that can grow and evolve to address the pain points of tomorrow. Embedded connectivity will unlock this growth opportunity thanks to purpose-built specifications designed to provide out-of-the-box connectivity, alongside new levels of implementation and ongoing management flexibility.
By now, most people should understand the risks of being complacent with cyber protection. Cybersecurity Ventures reports that cybercrime will cost victims US$9.5 trillion worldwide in 2024.. As enterprises continue to invest in digitization, cyber threat actors see additional devices and systems as new opportunities to enter a network. Cyber threat actors use various tactics to carry out cyberattacks, particularly social engineering attacks, phishing attacks, ransomware, distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, malware, etc. A successful attack not only costs a company money, but it can damage brand reputation and result in trade secrets or Intellectual Property (IP) being compromised.
With cellular modules getting more attention for their role in IoT solution security, ABI Research offers the first of a series of educational articles covering cellular modules. In each post, ABI Research analysts provide their insights on cellular modules and their impact on IoT solution security in critical areas of the IoT value chain.
Market research goes hand-in-hand with maximizing profits at a business enterprise. Whether you’re a vendor or an enterprise implementer of a new technology, in-depth, data-backed intelligence can safely guide your organization toward sustained success. Technology research deliverables identify potential roadblocks and lucrative revenue opportunities for organizations, while giving you a reliable partner to consult with when questions about your respective market inevitably arise. Take, for example, the technology market research case studies we recently compiled, showcasing how our forward-looking methodologies help some of our biggest clients with their digitization journeys. In this blog post, let’s review four of these case studies to give you a better idea of what kind of results you can expect from ABI Research as a technology intelligence partner.
A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) is the nucleus of contemporary mobile devices as they authenticate user Identity (ID) for billing and store crucial identity information. As chronicled in ABI Research’s most recent SIM Cards market data report, demand for this technology has already passed its peak. Worldwide shipments for SIM cards (a combination of removable and Embedded SIM (eSIM) solutions) are set to plateau, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 1.5% between 2023 and 2028—reaching 4.67 billion units shipped by the end of the forecast window. For reference, 5.38 billion SIMs shipped in 2018.
