T-IoT: A New Disruptive IoT Solution from T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom

On February 21st, T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom announced the launch of a new and disruptive Internet of Things (IoT) solution created to simplify global IoT connectivity for enterprises. The companies said that the new offering will be available across 188 destinations and on 383 networks worldwide. The new IoT solution provides features to view and, eventually, to manage global IoT connections across several platforms. The companies also jointly stated that many enterprises worldwide have not been able to reach their full capabilities with IoT because of the hurdles enterprises have to face when dealing with multiple vendors causing different contracts, service level agreements, management interfaces, and customer support needed to achieve global IoT deployment. This new global IoT solution was created to ease the challenges for current and future customers to achieve their full potential in the IoT space.

Currently, enterprises must navigate the difficulty of signing contracts with multiple operators when they have multinational IoT connections. T-IoT makes global connectivity much simpler and more flexible. In a joint statement, both companies added that T-IoT will “deliver worldwide network connectivity spanning the full range of technologies to support nearly every possible IoT scenario”, which includes Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT), LTE-M, LTE, and 5G. The two main pillars that this new solution offers are simplicity and flexibility, which will have a great impact on IoT. The companies will offer flat-rate unlimited connectivity packages and flexible add-on options for upgraded speed, roaming, and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) to help enterprises scale their business. It will also offer what they are calling a “single pane of glass” to support and manage global IoT connections across several platforms.

T-IoT provides a solution to one of the biggest challenges in the expansion and adoption of IoT worldwide. Enterprises want to be able to deploy devices worldwide and have devices that are mobile throughout the world, but face significant barriers when attempting to efficiently connect their devices in these scenarios. Simplicity is not currently associated with global IoT which makes the simplicity and flexibility that T-IoT provides to the market very disruptive. Simple global coverage and flexibility are two of the most important characteristics of scalable and sustainable solutions as IoT continues to grow and more use cases arise.

The launch of T-IoT will have a large impact on the IoT space. Enterprises have been limited in their ability to connect devices globally as there has never been the simplicity and price flexibility that T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom are providing with T-IoT. T-IoT is offered in three unlimited connectivity packages: T-IoT Unlimited Base, T-IoT Unlimited Premium, and T-IoT Unlimited Pro. The specifics of each package have yet to be fully released, but the number of deployments and included services will vary per package. The companies are also offering three pay-per-data models which adds even more flexibility to the number of enterprises and use cases that T-IoT will be able to provide global solutions for. The partnership between T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom also allows the companies to jointly provide greater services to their customers globally as they won’t have to contact numerous companies when they are seeking assistance with their global deployments.

Network providers need to be able to provide flexible pricing plans as the use cases for connecting things are ever expanding and as there is no one-size-fits all data plan for every single use case in the world. The solution that global connectivity provides has always been the dominant selling point but providing intelligent and flexible pricing will enable a market that previously wouldn’t have feasibly deployed global connectivity with the headaches and monetary challenges that were present.

We recommend that other network providers also find a way to provide simplistic and flexible global IoT connectivity options for their customers. Enterprises want to be able to connect their devices wherever they want to in the world and be able to manage them all from one platform while dealing with as few stakeholders, contracts, and SLAs as possible. The demand for connectivity in the IoT space will continue to grow and providing seamless global connectivity needs to be at the forefront of network providers current and future plans.