New study reveals the human cost of connectivity failures

Almost 1 in 2 (43%) business decision makers say that connectivity problems have caused “life affecting changes” to either staff or users of their products, with 93% suffering financial impact due to IoT connectivity issues, according to a new white paper published by rSIM, a critical connectivity provider “supporting mission, life and business critical IoT applications through its resilient SIM offering.”

Connectivity was found to be the number one issue faced by businesses in seven regions around the world, deemed more problematic even than securing and retaining business or staff.

The biggest concern is with the connectivity of IoT devices, which businesses and individuals increasingly rely on for day-to-day tasks. More than 80% of these are deemed either mission, business, or life critical, yet over half of the companies surveyed (58%) revealed they suffer connectivity problems with their IoT devices (ranging from remote patient monitoring devices to payment machines).

Key insights from the report: 

• Failing IoT connectivity is the number one issue faced by businesses all around the world, with 97% experiencing some form of outage every month.
• 93% of businesses have suffered financial impact due to IoT connectivity issues, with 63% losing sales or customers as a direct result.
• Almost 1 in 2 (43%) say connectivity problems have caused “life affecting changes” to either staff or the users of their products.
• A quarter of all businesses (25%) say they have been hacked due to connectivity issues.
• Two thirds of businesses say IoT data connectivity has become more critical in the last two years, with 32% saying they would develop new services or products with better resilience.