Telefonica Germany said it has introduced the new O2 Business Easy IoT prepaid tariffs, valid for 10 years. There are three versions, namely Easy IoT World with 750 MB, Easy IoT EU + UK with 1 GB and Easy IoT Germany with 1.5 GB. The tariffs costs a one-off fee of €10.00 (US $11.55).

The O2 Business Easy IoT tariffs support 2G, 4G, NB-IoT and, from December of this year, LTE-M, in order to network a large number of IoT industrial services and a large number of devices. Data packages can be booked easily and flexibly online for €10.00 per SIM card if the data allowance has been used up before the end of the device’s service life.

Tarifica’s Take

With the vast proliferation of connected devices today, especially in the business sector, the revenue opportunities for MNOs are of course also vast. While prices are low for these simple, targeted SIMs (since the bandwidth required for each connected device is very small) this is a volume business, as many companies need to connect a huge quantity of devices over the IoT.

What is noteworthy about Telefonica Germany’s current offering is that the period of time covered by the tariffs is 10 years—an extremely long time in comparison with most plans. What is more, in today’s market, especially the consumer sector, impatience with commitment terms is growing and operators are having to shorten or eliminate contracts. So a 10-year contract stands out as a very reliable long-term revenue stream indeed. And since the Easy IoT tariffs are prepaid, Telefonica gets a decade’s worth of income up front.

The suite is made more attractive by the fact that it supports so many different types of IoT network connectivity and that data allowances can easily be extended if the device uses its data more quickly than initially expected.