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The machines are taking up more and more SIMs.
Out of all mobile subscriptions in Ireland, 13.8pc are machine-to-machine (M2M) SIMs.
That is according to the latest ComReg market report for Q4 2017, suggesting that the number of internet of things (IoT) devices are on the rise.
According to Dell, by 2025, there will be more than 20bn connected devices globally; by 2030, 100bn devices. At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, GSMA Intelligence predicted that there will be 25bn connections to IoT globally in 2025.
According to the latest ComReg market report, M2M subscriptions increased to 828,780 – a 23.6pc annual increase. This made up 13.8pc of all mobile subscriptions in Q4 2017.
In Q4 2017, Vodafone Group had the largest market share of M2M subscriptions at 49.2pc followed by Three Group with 47.7pc of market share. Eir had the remaining 3pc of M2M subscriptions.
The report also revealed that 47.2pc of all mobile subscriptions in Ireland are actively using 4G networks, up from 41.6pc in 2016.
On a monthly basis, an average mobile voice subscriber used 215 minutes (a 0.6pc annual increase), sent 83 texts (a 10.7pc annual decrease) and used 4.8GB of data (a 52.3pc annual increase).
Total voice traffic minutes increased by 1.3pc in Q4 but were 2.2pc lower than in Q4 2016.
Mobile minutes form the majority of voice minutes at 77.9pc, with fixed minutes representing the remaining 22.1pc.
Mobile voice minutes increased by 1.9pc while fixed voice minutes decreased by 0.8pc this quarter.
Majority of fixed broadband connections greater than 30Mbps
The report found that fixed broadband subscriptions increased to 1.401m, a 0.8pc increase this quarter and a 3pc increase compared to Q4 2016.
The estimated household fixed and mobile broadband penetration rate for 2017 was 88pc, higher than the EU average of 85pc.
The fixed broadband penetration rate at the end of Q4 2017 was 68.4pc, up from 67.8pc in Q4 2017.
Average fixed broadband speeds continue to increase. In Q4 2017, approximately 84.3pc of all fixed broadband subscriptions were equal to or greater than 10Mbps, up from 79.8pc in Q4 2016.
According to the report, 72.1pc of all fixed broadband subscriptions were equal to or greater than 30Mbps, up from 64.9pc in Q4 2016.
