Vodafone IoT now connects more than 214 million devices across hundreds of networks in around 180 countries, and the operator's head of strategy, Phil Skipper, says managing that footprint is getting harder as Europe's connectivity market fragments into what he calls a "checkerboard".

"What we're seeing in Europe is the landscape is becoming sort of more of a checkerboard. It's never been holistic," Skipper told Mobile Europe.

The fragmentation has several drivers. Operators are switching off 2G networks at different speeds while building 4G, layering 5G on top, introducing 5G standalone and now adding satellite connectivity over the top. National telecoms regulation varies from country to country, and sovereignty requirements add a further layer of rules on where data and devices can live.

"You've now got a very mixed set of different networks in different countries, and customers just want a consistent experience," Skipper said. "It's variability that's driving one element of this complexity."

Customers, he argues, do not want to think about any of this. They expect connected devices to work wherever they are, regardless of the underlying network or technology.

"That's really our job to orchestrate that complexity because we're experts in the telecom space, whereas our customers aren't," he said.

From 2G sales pitch to LEO satellites

Skipper has spent more than a decade at Vodafone and has watched the IoT market mature from a technology that needed selling. "When we started, we were — it was really about convincing people that IoT was real," he recalled.

Fifteen years ago, 2G carried most connected-device deployments. Today enterprises can choose 4G for greater bandwidth, low Earth orbit satellite links, or low-power wide-area networks designed specifically for machines — Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), LTE-M and Cat-M.

That expansion underpins Vodafone IoT's current scale: more than 214 million devices across roughly 180 countries.

The orchestration problem

Connecting devices is only part of the challenge. Skipper points to what he calls the orchestration layer — an umbrella, or "single pane of glass", placed over the complexity below so operations look seamless to customers.

The problem extends beyond Europe. "We shouldn't forget that it's not just Europe. We have challenges in other markets where telco regulation is even more specific," he said. Some regulatory regimes require devices to use local infrastructure or local SIMs, and Skipper expects localisation to grow: "More devices will end up being localised using local infrastructure because of things like sovereignty."

The relationship between device, network and customer has changed accordingly. "What used to be a very simple, one-to-one-to-one relationship at the beginning is now much more multifaceted," he said.

AI as the path to automation

Vodafone IoT is tapping AI to manage the growing number of connectivity combinations. "AI can decide what's the best profile, what's the best network, what sort of data set needs to be assigned for a device," Skipper explained.

He rejects the idea that AI and automation are separate trends. "AI is the path to automation. Because our automation is really about the automation of processes, which can be done very well with AI," he said.

AI could also unlock what Skipper calls "chaotic use cases" — edge scenarios where the system cannot predict what it will encounter. "That's something IoT has really struggled to do," he admitted.

For Vodafone IoT, the commercial task ahead is clear. "That's what's going to have to be addressed by IoT operators like ourselves, because it's our job to make that complexity simple," Skipper concluded — with localisation, sovereignty rules and satellite integration set to keep adding layers to the checkerboard.