The Promise of M2M
Posted by Jesse Ward on Friday, February 3, 2012 · 
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Imagine a typical workday in the not-too-distant future. Your cell phone alarm goes off. Thirty minutes earlier it communicated with your thermostat, requesting your preferred temperature. Ten minutes prior it started your coffeemaker and it now turns on your TV to your favorite news channel as you wake up.
You’re surprised that your alarm went off 20 minutes earlier than you expected. That’s because it retrieved weather and traffic information and understood that you needed to leave the house earlier due to a snowstorm. It also communicated with your car to ensure that the electric engine re-charged itself overnight, as planned.
As you finish getting ready, it beeps again to inform you that it’s starting your car to de-ice the windows. It contacts your GPS to send the most updated directions based on road closures and information. As you leave the house to drive away, your car signals your home automation system to lock all doors, change the thermostat to save energy and arm your security system.
This automation is possible thanks in large part to machine-to-machine (M2M) technology. In its most basic form, M2M involves devices that communicate autonomously, without human involvement. M2M indicates that everyday objects are readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable and controllable through the Internet. In fact, M2M is now synonymous with the “Internet of things.” Read more
Industry Challenges to Full-Scale M2M Deployment
Posted by Jesse Ward on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 · ·
With such a wide range of applications, there are many challenges to uniform, widespread deployment. Harish Viswanathan, CTO advisor for M2M and Devices at Alcatel-Lucent, made the analogy that these obstacles are similar to the plumbing of a construction project, a necessary function for the technology to function.
Currently, there is a shortage of IP addresses, which are assigned to Internet-enabled devices and a critical component to their connectivity. As a result of this address shortage, the industry is at the early stages of a decades-long evolution from IPv4 to IPv6, the standard on which the Internet is based. Once the transition is complete, IPv6 will enable exponentially more devices to connect to the network.
Each M2M device will produce an incremental amount of data and an accompanying small amount of revenue. As such, mobile operators must create new, compelling business offerings, with accompanying service-level agreements and billing arrangements.
In addition, mobile operators must evolve their core networks to handle a large number of devices, applications and transactions. The operator must create a platform that is capable of provisioning, authenticating, automating, monitoring and managing many, many more devices. Read more
How Can You Monetize M2M?
Posted by Jesse Ward on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 · ·
“Rural service provides have two main options,” said Steve Pazol, CEO of nPhase. “One, they can provide the transactional connectivity, selling SIM cards and data plans direct to business customers, or negotiating roaming agreements with established M2M vendors. Or they can climb higher in the solution chain, offering a complete M2M solution for various vertical industries.”
Pazol went on to note that it’s probably unrealistic for most rural service providers to develop their own M2M solution. He offered the example of a wireless M2M medical device. In order to create a mobile plug-and-play solution, the developer must create the medical device, design a wireless antenna, embed the radio connectivity into the device, develop the middleware and ensure that it communicates with the backend core network. For many rural telcos this is a complicated and technically challenging process. As a result, instead of developing their own solution, most rural telcos will look to partner with outsourced solutions providers to offer a white-label product. Most likely rural operators first will turn to their infrastructure and consulting providers for this partnership. Read more