IoT service price benchmarking by research company IoT Analytics showed Verizon in the US and Telefonica Germany are the cheapest mainstream providers in their respective markets, but found big-name players face stiff competition from MVNOs.

IoT Analytics explained MVNOs can offer connectivity at lower prices due to having fewer overheads than mainstream MNOs, though argued the latter makes up for any difference in fees through value-added services and the diversity of the products they offer.

Verizon’s closest MVNO competitor in the US is Transatel, with Telefonica lining up against Onomondo.

IoT Analytics modelled its research on operators providing services directly to end-users as part of a broader study of the market.

It looked into 150 IoT data plans offered by more than 20 operators globally, with the assumption these are 4G connections consuming between 101MB and 500MB of data.

Based on these assumptions, IoT Analytics stated MVNOs’ pricing is typically 32 per cent lower than MNOs at $4.98, though it noted some customers are less cost sensitive, particularly if they require high data limits, low-latency and management of broad deployments.

Diving into the US figures, IoT Analytics found Verizon offered the lowest-cost base rate among MNOs at $14 per month. MVNOs Transatel and Soracom price at $2.30 and $4.40 per month, respectively.

Telefonica Germany’s cheapest price is $4.40 per month/device while Onomondo’s per-MB fee would see 100MB cost $0.73 per month/SIM.

IoT Analytics explained there are “generally three models” IoT operators employ: time-based; usage-based; and a combination of each.