IoT Summit - Enabling Intelligent Connectivity for Asia’s Digital Future

The IoT Summit Shanghai 2026 convenes leading enterprises, mobile operators, technology innovators, and ecosystem partners from across China and the Asia Pacific region to explore how next generation connectivity is accelerating large scale digital transformation.

As Asia continues to lead global growth in smart manufacturing, smart cities, logistics, energy, and agriculture, the summit focuses on how 5G Massive IoT, satellite connectivity, and intelligent platforms are simplifying deployment, reducing operational complexity, and enabling reliable, secure, and cost effective IoT at national and regional scale.

With strong momentum across China and neighbouring markets for LTE M, NB IoT, and hybrid terrestrial–non terrestrial networks, the event highlights practical approaches to achieving ubiquitous coverage, resilient service continuity, and efficient device lifecycle management – supporting millions of connected devices across urban, industrial, and remote environments.

Key Topics and Themes

Massive IoT for Industrial and Urban Scale

Exploring how LTE M and NB IoT are powering large scale deployments across manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and smart city infrastructures.
Sessions address real world strategies to streamline device onboarding, simplify connectivity management, and reduce total cost of ownership, supporting rapid rollout across diverse geographies.

Non Terrestrial Networks (NTN) and Hybrid Connectivity in IoT

Examining the role of satellite IoT and hybrid terrestrial–satellite networks in extending coverage to rural, maritime, mountainous, and cross border regions.
The summit showcases how NTN integration enables seamless nationwide and pan regional IoT services, supporting logistics, energy, agriculture, and environmental monitoring across Asia.

eRedCap IoT: A new standard in IoT

Introducing eRedCap IoT as a mid tier connectivity solution that balances performance, cost, and power efficiency. Early commercial use cases demonstrate how eRedCap supports video enabled sensors, industrial automation, and advanced monitoring – bridging the gap between high end broadband IoT and low power devices.

Ambient IoT and Sustainable Innovation

Highlighting battery free and ultra low power IoT technologies designed for long term, low maintenance deployment. Discussions focus on energy harvesting and sustainable design, aligning IoT innovation with Asia’s growing emphasis on green development and operational efficiency.

AI and Machine Learning for Intelligent Operations

Exploring how AI and machine learning are transforming IoT operations through automated analytics, predictive maintenance, and intelligent decision making. These capabilities help enterprises improve efficiency, optimise resources, and accelerate digital transformation across complex IoT environments

IoT SIM and Trusted Connectivity

Presenting the GSMA IoT SIM specification, designed to support secure identity, flexible provisioning, and scalable lifecycle management.
This session addresses the needs of large Asian deployments, enabling cross network interoperability, regulatory compliance, and long term operational stability.

 

Agenda:

13:00 - 13:05 - Introduction & Welcome, Shantal Wilson, Senior Marketing Manager - GSMA

13:05 - 13:10 - The GSMA IoT Community Update, Shane Rooney, Senior Technical Director - GSMA

13:10 - 13:20 - Accelerating 5G-A All-Scenario IoT : Embarking on the Journey to 100 Billion Intelligent Connections, James Zeng, President of Huawei Wireless FDD Product Line

13:20 - 13:30 - Future-Proofing Cellular IoT: eRedCap's Role in the 5G Technology Evolution, Igor Tovberg, Director, Product Marketing & Strategic Partnerships, Altair Semiconductor

5G eRedCap is emerging as the natural next step for cellular IoT, bridging the gap between LPWA and broadband 5G NR. It brings 5G's efficiency, longer lifetime and cost optimization driven by HD-FDD technology to the mid-tier IoT segment, that has been served until now by LTE CAT 1 and CAT 1bis.

In this session, Igor Tovberg of Altair Semiconductor, will walk through existing LPWA technologies: LTE-M, NB-IoT and explain how eRedCap is positioned in the broader 5G IoT roadmap, why it matters to operators preparing for LTE sunset, and what device makers should be planning today. Drawing on Altair's deep cellular IoT expertise, the talk will cover real-world LPWA deployment considerations — power, cost, global coverage with OneSKU and NTN — and share the mature use cases across asset tracking, metering healthcare and wearables. Attendees will leave with a clear view of how eRedCap fits alongside NB-IoT, LTE-M, and full 5G NR, and a practical sense of when to design for it versus stay on existing technologies.

 

13:30 - 13:40 - Non-Terrestrial Networks: Defining the Next Phase of Telecoms, Jaymy Teh, VP Connect Product - Proximus Global

Non-Terrestrial Networks are becoming a natural extension of the mobile network and soon hybrid networks will become the norm. The expansion of global IoT is behind the meteoric rise of satellite. Historically viewed as a niche fallback for remote areas, satellite IoT is rapidly evolving into a natural extension of the mobile network. As global IoT use cases reach maturity, the industry is shifting toward a hybrid model where terrestrial and satellite networks merge to provide truly ubiquitous coverage. The stars have aligned to unlock new global IoT use cases such as disaster recovery and asset tracking that are driving this shift forward. This session will cover how the convergence around 3GPP and GSMA roaming standards is removing the technical barriers to integration, making it easier than ever to incorporate satellites into existing cellular architecture.

This standardisation, supported by a healthy partnership ecosystem, ensures that satellite roaming is now as seamless as consumer mobile roaming. For Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), this means accessing a unified hybrid network through a single solution without added complexity. These advancements are unlocking new market potential and ensuring connectivity is delivered wherever it is needed most

 

13:40 - 13:50 - eSIMs: Powering Global Growth in a New Security Paradigm, Jean-Louis Carrara, SVP, Head of Global Sales, Kigen 

eSIM has long been recognized for its role in connectivity, scale, and deployment efficiency. Its next significance is more strategic. For Chinese brands expanding across global consumer and IoT markets, eSIM is emerging as part of the security foundation that will increasingly shape market access, product trust, and long-term competitiveness.

The EU Cyber Resilience Act raises expectations for vulnerability reporting, remote management, and cybersecurity resilience. Emerging cyber regulation demand similar in China and North America. The capacity to update and sustain devices in the field is becoming a decisive requirement for international growth. In this context, eSIM is becoming an essential trust anchor of continuity, control, and compliance at scale.

GSMA standards, including the SGP. 32-certified eSIMs and eIM, enable alignment on architecture, expanding the transformational impact of eSIM across a far wider range of sectors. This keynote will explore a new security paradigm for connected edge and AI products: one in which cyber resilience enabled by eSIMs becomes the true license for global growth.

 

13:50 - 14:00 - TBC, Wang Lihua, Deputy General Manager, IoT Business Unit -  Unicom Digital Tech

14:00 - 14:10 - Orchestrating Connectivity, Kelvin Pan, General Manager – China - Telenor IoT 

From a telecom operator perspective, this speech analyzes the new landscape of IoT connectivity. IoT networks have evolved from traditional terrestrial networks to integrated satellite networking, eliminating coverage limitations. The release of SGP.32 brings great opportunities while raising challenges in system collaboration and global regulatory compliance. It shares practical suggestions for enterprises to build operable future-oriented connectivity services. Emphasizing compliance as the core premise of solution design, it advocates building flexible, manageable system architectures, helping the industry establish stable, efficient and sustainable next-generation IoT collaborative connectivity ecosystem.

 

14:10 - 14:20 - Sharing the Latest AIoT Technologies and Application Trends, William Yang, Executive President - Shenzhen IoT Industry Association, Founder of IOTE Expo

Elaborate on the development trends and application innovations of state-of-the-art AIoT technologies covering intelligent sensing, passive IoT, UBW, satellite IoT, visual IoT and edge intelligence.

 

14:20 - 14:30 - TBC, Jehad Matar, APAC and Middle East Regional Manager – IoT Technical Service, Vodafone Global Enterprise

14:30 - 14:40 - Intelligence IoT for Public Safety — From Reactive Surveillance to Proactive Resilience, Jolly Wong, Special Advisor, TCCA

This paper examines the transformative role of Intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) in modern public safety operations, shifting the paradigm from reactive surveillance to proactive resilience. Drawing on global market data and real-world case studies — including Hong Kong’s SmartView project, India’s Safe City initiatives, the European Union’s ProtectEU Strategy, and San Diego’s smart streetlight deployment — the paper identifies three core benefits of Intelligence IoT: proactive risk detection, automated response coordination, and privacy-preserving security. Emerging technologies such as federated learning with digital twins, AI-driven video analytics integrated with SCADA systems, edge-enabled smart cameras, and blockchain for decentralized trust are analyzed. The paper also discusses opportunities, challenges, and projects five mega-trends shaping the future of public safety IoT.

 

14:40 - 14:50 - Security & Compliance as Foundation: Smart IoT Device Global Expansion from China, Johnny Dou, Joint Secretary General, World AIoT Innovation Alliance (WAIA) Founder/CEO, Shenzhen U-Linking/Easylink

Compliance is the foundation, and revenue comes second. With stricter global IoT supervision, Chinese enterprises face dual compliance challenges including device safety certification and overseas IoT SIM card access regulations. Many regions ban long-distance roaming SIM cards, requiring local compliant telecom cards, real-name registration and local network access standards. This speech focuses on core rules of IoT device overseas certification, cross-border data security and standardized use of overseas SIM/eSIM resources. Adhering to the principle that security and compliance rank first, we help enterprises avoid policy risks, card suspension and legal penalties, realize stable and legitimate overseas business layout, and achieve steady profit growth on the premise of full compliance.

 

14:50 - 14:55 - IoT Summit Closing Remarks, Shantal Wilson, Senior Marketing Manager, GSMA