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The two things that could doom the ‘Internet of things’ revolution

John Horn, RACO Wireless — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 20:00:54 +0000

It goes by many names these days: Machine-to-machine communications; the Internet of Things; the Industrial Internet; even just “wireless sensors.” In short, M2M is the technology that enables the automated exchange of key information between machines, and then ultimately to humans.

With seemingly endless applications that range from mere entertainment (say, streaming video to the backseat of your car) to matters of life and death (like the ability for doctors to remotely monitor blood glucose levels), M2M technology is already rapidly changing the way that we live for the better. The M2M revolution is threatened, however, by two crucial and already pressing challenges: unnecessary complexity and the impending sunset of 2G wireless.

The rise of M2M is revolutionizing the way countless industries work. From shipping companies that now track high-dollar assets from country to country, to auto dealers that use GPS tracking and automated collection technology to assess customer loans. From doctors and caregivers who can monitor elderly patients from a distance to know if they need assistance instantly, to bagged ice machine vendors who are alerted when supply is low.

M2M is also a key enabler of Big Data, as an unprecedented amount of information is being collected from automated sensors already—from inside cars, in traffic light cameras, in new automated parking meters, in energy meters and so on. In fact, a whopping 2.14 billion M2M devices will have the ability to “talk to each other” by 2021—up from an estimated 100.4 million M2M device connections in 2011, according to the research firm Analysys Mason Limited. That represents an astounding compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36 percent across 10 years. And through it all, M2M is creating greater operational efficiencies, more productivity and fewer costs and headaches for companies across all industries.

All of these growth predictions fail to account for the crucial challenges mentioned above, however, which could become a costly and time-consuming wrench in the works for companies if they aren’t addressed. Some estimates suggest it could slash the forecast for 2.14 billion M2M devices in half—or even worse.

Complexity is a profit killer

Right now, large enterprise M2M projects still often take up to three years to complete, and typically require at least a $25 million investment, according to the research firm Maravedis-Rethink. It’s a big reason that M2M adoption for many businesses is still in a semi-holding pattern, with few committed to building it into their business plans.

That can’t continue if we’re really going to see M2M solutions make their way into improving our everyday lives, helping businesses improve bottom lines and allowing decision makers to make more informed decisions. There is no doubt that the benefits await, but there will be some wrinkles to iron out along the way.

M2M solutions must be made to be easier to deploy. We’re talking days or weeks here – even hours. Not years. Solution providers need the ability to get thousands of M2M devices up and running at once, crucially, using existing, standardized technology. They need the ability to customize rate plans and to see in real-time how their customers are actually using their applications. This is possible. More to the point, enterprises that get their M2M applications up and running quickly are seeing amazing returns. No longer do enterprises have to sit on the sidelines and wait as the process unrolls while they continue running their business with the same deficiencies that their solution is intended to improve. Typically, there is up to a 40 percent return on their investment in the first year alone.

But every time there’s a problem with that M2M application or the enterprise IT department has to focus on something like making the wireless connection work, that ROI is reduced. And at some point, if deploying an M2M application distracts from a company’s core business rather than enhancing it, then the ROI is no longer worth the effort.

Sunsetting 2G could slow some M2M applications

Unfortunately, simplicity isn’t the only thing holding back the growth of M2M right now. In fact, the very future of some M2M applications is being challenged, thanks to the mobile industry’s migration to 3G and 4G networks. In the process many are simply shutting down their existing 2G networks, stranding customers who have M2M applications that rely on them. I recently heard of a small boutique in the Midwest that relies on a 2G network to process credit-card payments. Without notice, its 2G cellular service was shut off and suddenly the shop’s point of sale device was non-functional, leaving a vulnerable small business scrambling to find options.

Complicating matters is that many M2M applications simply don’t use enough data to justify updating or transitioning them to wider pipes and the more costly devices associated with 3G and 4G networks. So, while in many cases it may be an option to upgrade to a significantly more expensive 3G or 4G compatible device, the low levels of data consumption required by these applications would not come close to justifying it, and so unnecessarily put a hit on a businesses ROI.

These shifts force customers to be very strategic in how they plan their M2M strategy. As some carriers are forced to move away from 2G networks because of spectrum constraints or other long-term strategies, there are other carriers that remain committed to supporting their 2G networks.

The bottom line is that for M2M to reach its full potential, application providers need easy-to-implement M2M solutions. And they also need some assurance that their M2M solutions will still be supported in the future as networks continue to evolve. If you give enterprises and potential M2M application developers these two things, M2M will reach its full potential.

And we’ll continue to see a revolution in the way business gets done.

John Horn is president of RACO Wireless.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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How’s this for cool? T-Mobile is connecting ice machines

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:12:35 +0000

T-Mobile will soon have nearly 1 million new wireless connections on its network, but they won’t be smartphones. T-Mobile is linking its 2G network to hundreds of thousands of ice machines – that’s right, I’m talking about those refrigerated boxes outside of grocery stores and gas stations containing bagged ice.

Raco Wireless, T-Mobile’s machine-to-machine communications outsourcer, is working with an ice machine vendor to connect hundreds of thousands of these machines across the country, Raco President John Horn told me at the Connected World conference this week. He wouldn’t reveal the company, nor the timing. Horn would only say that the whole business of selling bagged ice in this country is about to significantly change.

Why on earth would you connect a bagged-ice machine? It’s the ideal use case for an M2M app, Horn said. The boxes can alert ice vendors when they start running low on inventory. They can send out a warning if the temperature of the machine rises above freezing or the refrigeration assembly appears to be malfunctioning, allowing the company to dispatch a repairman before the machine’s contents turn to slush. Horn said Raco is even working with the vendor to install remote payment terminals so customers can buy their ice on the spot and outside of business hours.

“It’s one simple new solution,” Horn said. “But with it your changing the entire user experience around buying a bag of ice.”

I’ve always enjoyed interviewing Horn, who headed up T-Mobile’s M2M business before he went to Raco, where he’s now basically handling the lion’s share of T-Mobile’s M2M business. Horn just loves to talk about all of the crazy uses toward which M2M technology is being put. In previous conversations we have discussed how wireless networks are linking farm equipment, greenhouses, children’s watches, and even cops.

In the last case, the police officers themselves aren’t chipped, rather key equipment they use. For instance M2M modules, coupled with accelerometers, can alert dispatch when the officer’s gun is unholstered or if when the officer is running and abruptly comes to a sudden stop – neither of which is ever a good good sign.

T-Mobile is trying to overcome the perception that that’s it M2M business is dying as it shuts down large portions of its 2G network, which hosts 90 percent of its M2M connections. Instead of losing business, T-Mobile and Raco have actually gained it, Horn said. In addition to its current ice machine project, Raco and T-Mobile just won a key deal with Apriva Wireless to power point-of-sale transactions in wireless payment terminals.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Steve Heap

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AT&T starts replacing 2G with HSPA in NYC

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:51:19 +0000

It looks like we were right about AT&T sunsetting its 2G networks to make way for more mobile broadband capacity. On Wednesday, Ma Bell announced it would ‘refarm’ PCS spectrum in New York City currently occupied by its GSM voice networks for new “3G and 4G” services.

That means AT&T is expanding its HSPA network — which it calls 4G – to account for the increasing data load the iPhone and other 3G smartphones are placing on its mobile broadband infrastructure. AT&T runs LTE in NYC, as well, but in a different band. Meanwhile, the backbone of its HSPA service already rides over its PCS frequencies.

In March, AT&T started contacting customers with 2G only phones – specifically very old models that worked only on AT&T’s PCS frequencies – offering them free 3G replacements. AT&T isn’t shutting off 2G completely. It runs a considerable portion of its GSM network at the cellular frequency band, which all phones sold in recent years support. But if AT&T is trying to cull its subscriber base of PCS-only 2G phones, it’s a good sign it plans to shut down GSM at PCS entirely, reserving that band entirely for HSPA.

NYC is AT&T’s densest market so it’s the logical place to start. Unlike the its CDMA 3G counterpart, HSPA supports voice as well as data, so AT&T really isn’t sacrificing any voice capacity. It gains the benefits of a far faster and more efficient mobile broadband network that puts GSM/EDGE sub-megabit speeds to shame. AT&T also may be working with its 3G vendors Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent to use new configurable bandwidth technologies to gradually shift GSM capacity to HSPA, as opposed to shutting off a huge chunk of its 2G network at once.

Refarming has become a popular trend among U.S. carriers in the last year. T-Mobile is shutting down a large portion of its GSM network to make room for a nationwide LTE rollout and more HSPA capacity. Meanwhile, Sprint plans to retire its Nextel iDEN network by 2014 in order to reuse its 800 MHz frequencies for CDMA and LTE.

Image courtesy of Flickr user joey.parsons

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Asia’s StarHub latest to harvest 2G spectrum for LTE

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:07:32 +0000

Singapore’s StarHub has taken its 4G fate into its own hands, revealing today it will shut down part of its 2G network to make room for LTE, rather than wait around for new 4G spectrum to materialize. It will launch an LTE network by the end of 2012 over its 1800 MHz airwaves, using Nokia Siemens Networks gear.

Though StarHub’s competitors SingTel and M1 have both launched LTE networks on the Island nation using 1800 MHz, StarHub claims to be the first operator in Southeast Asia to “refarm” currently utilized 2G frequencies for 4G, instead of just launching over unused airwaves. StarHub probably had little choice if it wanted to keep pace with its rivals, as Singapore still hasn’t revealed an date for the auctioning of new 4G spectrum.

Though the 2600 GHz and 800 MHz ‘digital dividend’ bands have been identified as the the primary 4G bands around the world, auction delays and the fact that many of those frequencies already have broadcaster tenants have kept many operators from rolling out their new networks. Many of them have begun looking to their old digital voice airwaves (1800 MHz is the international equivalent of the U.S. PCS band) to get LTE to market faster.

Eastern European operators were among the first to use 1800 MHz as a 4G launch pad, while in Western Europe, Deutsche Telekom and TeliaSonera have also tapped into their 2G frequencies to augment their designated 4G licenses. In the U.K. Everything Everywhere – a tie-up between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom – is trying to pool its 2G airwaves to build LTE well ahead of the U.K.’s 4G auctions. And in Italy, Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 is using the band to get a jump on competitors Wind and Vodafone. In the Asia-Pacific region, Telstra in Australia and Korea Telecom are also reaping their old 2G spectrum.

Many of those operators are tapping into unused 1800 MHz frequencies, but few have taken the radical step of actually shutting down existing network capacity to get at those airwaves. We’re starting to see the same thing happen in the U.S. but on different frequencies. While Sprint has designated an unused block of its PCS airwaves for its initial LTE rollout, it plans to refarm its old Nextel frequencies for 4G, after it sunsets its iDEN network. T-Mobile is being even more aggressive, compacting its 2G networks into a small portion of its PCS airwaves, to make room for more HSPA+ and a new LTE network.

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