IoT delivered by 5G is poised to drive $8 billion in revenue for operators by 2024, according to a new study from Juniper Research. That represents a 1,424% increase from the $525 million IoT is projected to contribute to operator revenue this year.

The massive growth prediction also underlines why operators are increasingly jockeying for various opportunities with connected devices, ranging from simple low-power sensors to autonomously driven vehicles.

Network operators, vendors, and device makers have been forcefully targeting IoT for at least 15 years, and with the arrival of 5G, operators are determined to bring IoT out of the shadows.

As revenue from mobile phone subscriptions reaches a peak for many operators, the promise of IoT has become a particular point of interest as operators seek to increase their return on investment in 5G networks. Juniper Research encourages operators to develop value-added services, including network slicing and mobile edge computing, to bolster their position and enable more IoT services.

Such tools “will be essential to attract the highest spending IoT service users to use their 5G networks,” the firm wrote in its report.

These services will also “become crucial in the automotive and smart cities sectors,” Juniper forecasts, adding that those industries will account for 70% of all 5G IoT connections by 2025.

The research also concluded that the initial high price of 5G connectivity is dissuading some IoT adoption and that operators will have to complement their offering with better network management tools.

“Management tools for the newly enabled services are key for users managing large scale deployment,” the report’s author Andrew Knighton wrote. “We believe that only 5% of 5G connections will be attributable to the IoT, but as these are newly enabled connections, operators must view them as essential to securing a return on their 5G investment.”