M2m Now Magazine August September 2014

SEPTEMBER

V O L U M E

4

I S S U E

M2M Now: ISSN 2046-5882

2014

4

ENABLING FREEDOM FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS How to deliver customer choice in the IoT Interview with Wyless CEO, Dan McDuffie

AUTOMOTIVE M2M Fast forward to connected vehicles Read The Analysts’ Insight Report in full at www.m2mnow.biz

FLEET & ASSET MANAGEMENT How can the mass market potential be maximised?

Read the report at www.m2mnow.biz

mHEALTH

SMART CITIES

THE BLACK BOOK

Wellness is just the opening gambit in mobile health!

M2M Now Insight Out December 2014

Better lives not just big profits boosting interest in Smart cities M2M Now Insight Out February 2015

Five key industry verticals assessed by leading M2M/IoT analysts All in one book.

Out February 2015

PLUS: Smart Utilities Insight Report INSIDE • PTC buys Axeda for US$170m • Over half of networks not IoT-ready • Connected car services to earn US$17bn in 2018 • Consortium formed to ease IoT interoperability • Freewave appoints new CEO • The latest Contract Hot List • Next Android to use Bluetooth 4.1 • New M2M partnerships • More news at www.m2mnow.biz

P R O F I T

F R O M

A

W O R L D

O F

C O N N E C T E D

D E V I C E S

CONTENTS

12 TALKING HEADS

15

SMART UTILITIES INSIGHT REPORT

33

EUW 2014 SUPPLEMENT

52 NORDIC REVIEW

IN THIS ISSUE 4

EDITOR’S COMMENT – Gift Horse or Trojan Horse

5

MARKET NEWS Connected car services to reap US$17bn in 2018. New open interconnect consortium launched

6

COMPANY NEWS PTC follows ThingWorx acquisition with $170m Axeda purchase. Networks not IoT-ready

7

PEOPLE NEWS New faces at Antenova M2M, Freewave, Nokia, SIMalliance, and ZTR Control Systems

8

CONTRACT NEWS & HOT LIST Cyan gets smart in India, Pomona takes Sedaru. New orders from Africa to the Americas

9

EVENT DIARY What’s On in the world of M2M & IoT

10

PRODUCT NEWS GE Predivity offers equipment insights; littleBits eases internet connectivity;

12

TALKING HEADS How do you deliver ‘freedom’ in the Internet of Things?

Dan McDuffie, Wyless CEO, talks to M2M Now

15

M2M NOW INSIGHT REPORT – SMART UTILITIES In the latest of our ongoing series of specially commissioned, independent, analyst-written Insight Reports, Saverio Romeo of Beecham Research examines The Benefits and Challenges of Making Utilities Smart. He describes how smart metering is progressing, the challenges being faced, and reveals some new business opportunities and unexpected threats.

32 AUTOMOTIVE M2M The 4G-enabled car is the next hot ‘consumer device’

33 EUW 2014 SUPPLEMENT M2M Now’s unrivalled 12-page Supplement to European Utility Week 2014 in Amsterdam 46 CONNECTED HOMES Smart connected homes are driving IoT. So says Antony Savvas, after canvassing the market.

48 INTERVIEW: SMART HOMES Saverio Romeo of Beecham Research asks Telenor Connexion’s CMO, Robert Brunbäck how the wide-ranging business opportunity of connected homes can be exploited and the difficulties overcome 54 NORDIC REVIEW: THE PROS AND CONS OF BEING FIRST MOVERS IN M2M Scandinavia has enjoyed benefits from early adoption of M2M communications, but there are IoT problems too 57 THE GLASS BOARDROOM: A BRAVE NEW WORLD In an exclusive article for M2M Now, Oozi Cats, CEO of Telit Communications PLC, says that IoT is reinventing the way we all manage and do business 64 THE BACK PAGE George Elrington takes a sideways look at the connected world

Cover Sponsor: Wyless is a leading global M2M managed services provider.

Its platform, delivered in partnership with the world’s largest network operators, provides secure, reliable communications with wireless devices in over 120 countries. Powerful management tools offer real-time reporting and control over all devices connected to our network. Wyless delivers a comprehensive suite of managed services with unrivalled expertise, professional support and competitive pricing. Wyless enables its customers and partners to deploy M2M applications and services faster, cheaper and more effectively. www.wyless.com September 2014

3

COMMENT

Smart meters: Gift Horse or Trojan Horse?

Of all the domestic applications for M2M (machine-to-machine) communications proposed over the years few have generated as much business optimism as smart utilities. But what do we really mean by smart utilities; are smart meters just the opening salvo in a global campaign to create smart homes? And who are the main beneficiaries; domestic energy consumers, business users, the utilities, the M2M industry (of which most consumers are only dimly aware), or all of the above?

If providers of smart utility services are to win over the vocal sceptics they need to declare their intentions, tell users what the upsides and downsides are, the scope of their plans, and they need to confront conspiracy theorists who see smart meters as a Trojan Horse giving ‘Big Business’ a spy in the home.

As independent analysts Beecham Research say in M2M Now’s latest speciallycommissioned Insight Report (starting on page 19) “smart metering is a means of achieving a more green and effective energy system” and the EU aims to have 80% of Europe’s energy consumers so equipped by 2020. To achieve this the industry will have to overcome consumer reluctance from those who fail to see the benefits of metering, and outright resistance from those who suspect the industry’s motives. If handled right, this is an unparalleled opportunity for utilities to

Contributors in this issue of M2M Now We are always proud to bring you the best writers and commentators in M2M and IoT. In this issue they include:

EDITOR & PUBLISHER Jeremy Cowan Tel: +44 (0) 1420 588638 j.cowan@m2mnow.biz DIGITAL EDITOR Nathalie Bisnar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 808690 n.bisnar@m2mnow.biz BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Cherisse Jameson Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807410 c.jameson@m2mnow.biz

Olivier Beaujard, vice-president market development, Sierra Wireless

Erik Brenneis, head of Vodafone M2M

build positive relationships with their customers. The alternative will benefit no-one.

A special bound-in supplement previewing the upcoming European Utility Week event in Amsterdam starts on page 33. M2M Now will be there and, based on past experience, we recommend you join us if you have an interest in connected homes and smarter utilities.

Meanwhile, don’t miss our articles on Automotive M2M (page 54), the Glass Boardroom (page 57), and our Review of M2M in the Nordic countries. We hope you enjoy the magazine.

Jeremy Cowan, Editor & Publisher, M2M Now

Experienced freelance writer, Alun Lewis, talks to some leading enablers of smart metering

IT and communications journalist, Antony Savvas, guides you through the connected home

George Malim, editor of our sister title VanillaPlus, finds IoT is reinventing how we do business

Senior analyst at Beecham Research, Dr Therese Cory, analyses smart utilities and metering

DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PLANNING Charlie Bisnar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411 charlie@wkm-global.com

PUBLISHED BY WeKnow Media Ltd. Suite 138, 70 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411

DESIGN Jason Appleby Ark Design Consultancy Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1787 881623

DISTRIBUTION UK Postings Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 8456 444137

CIRCULATION Circdata Tel: +44 (0) 1635 869868

M2M Now is distributed free to selected named individuals worldwide who meet the Publisher's terms of Circulation Control. If you would like to apply for a regular free copy supplied at the Publisher's discretion visit www.m2mnow.biz If you do not qualify for a free subscription, paid subscriptions can be obtained. Subscriptions for 5 issues per year cost £125.00 worldwide (or US$210 / €160) including post and packing.

4

EDITORIAL ADVISORS

Alexander Bufalino, SVP, Global Marketing, Telit.

Robin DukeWoolley, CEO, Beecham Research

Baard Eilertsen, president & CEO, Maingate

Gwenn Larsson, director, M2M Global Expansion, Telenor

Andrew Parker, project marketing director, Connected Living, GSMA

Gert Pauwels, M2M marketing director, Orange Business

Bill Zujewski, CMO & EVP, Product Strategy at Axeda Corp All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored, published or © WeKnow Media Ltd 2014 in any way reproduced without the prior written consent of the Publisher. M2M Now: ISSN 2046-5882

September 2014

MARKET NEWS Connected car service providers to reap $17 billion in 2018 as the business models and trends driving the market.

Infonetics Research expects that revenue from connectivity, and other services to the connected car segment, will more than triple from 2013 to 2018, to US$16.9 billion worldwide. In fact, some service providers are already seeing as much as 90% of their machine-tomachine (M2M) revenue generated from the auto sector.

The firm’s ‘Connected Car M2M Connections and Services’ market size and forecasts report focuses on telecom-related services for automotive applications, fleet management, and telematics, as well

Unlike the smart grid vertical, which favours 2G technology to keep usage cheap, or connected cameras, which require at least 3G and ideally 4G technology for good quality, the connected car vertical is able to make use of every generation of cellular technology available. This means that just about any communications service provider, whether they have 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE or a combination of technologies, can find a niche in the connected car space.

Juniper Research has also released figures looking to 2018, stating that the number of in-vehicle apps is expected to reach 269 million. Its ‘Connected Cars: Consumer & Commercial Telematics and Infotainment 2014-2018’ research attributes growth to offerings such as Apple's CarPlay which will promote in-vehicle apps to the mainstream.

Active cargo tracking units to reach 4.1 million Also by 2018, according to analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of active tracking devices deployed in cargo loading units will reach 4.1 million, up from 1.5 million Johan Svanberg Berg Insight worldwide in Q42013 (CAGR 22.3%).

This includes trailers, intermodal containers, air cargo containers, cargo boxes, and pallets.

The North American trailer telematics market accounts for 60% of the total installed base today. The top providers include: Omnitracs, Skybitz, ID Systems, Orbcomm and Spireon which together have more than 600,000 active units. In Europe, Idem Telematics, Mecomo, Schmitz Cargobull, and Novacom Europe are cited as trailer telematics providers with more than 20,000 September 2014

active units each. The report also labels Orbcomm, Envotech, Zenatech, PearTrack Systems, Honeywell, and Savi Technology as major providers of intermodal container tracking.

“Logistics and transportation companies need to be ready to take advantage of the increasing amount of data generated by cargo tracking solutions in order to effectively improve productivity and customer service levels” said Johan Svanberg, senior analyst, Berg Insight.

Meanwhile, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Russia/CIS and Eastern Europe, was 2.9 million in Q4-2013. Today, the region has an installed base of well over 1 million active units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.7% this is expected to reach 5.9 million by 2018.

NEWS IN BRIEF Standards are critical for the emergence of IoT A new paper from Machina Research, ‘Standards for the Internet of Things’, William Webb, examines existing associate expert and emerging and author of standards for the report communications, connectivity, networking, service layers, data abstraction, and discoverability.

The author, Professor William Webb, said: “Currently, what has been termed the IoT is a jumble of open and proprietary standards, with a lot of vertical and horizontal silos.

Realistically, to move from this ‘Internet of Silos’ to the Internet of Things is going to require standardisation. The emergence of a small number of leading solutions in the various spaces of local connectivity, wide area connectivity and service or application layer would simplify application development and allow industry to coalesce around a few global standards.”

Open interconnect consortium established for better interoperability A new industry consortium will focus on improving interoperability and defining the connectivity requirements for the billions of devices that make up the IoT. Comprised of Atmel Corp, Broadcom Corp, Dell Inc, Intel Corp, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, and Wind River, the ‘Open Interconnect Consortium’ (OIC) will define a common communications framework.

Member companies will contribute software and engineering resources to develop a protocol specification, open source implementation, and a certification programme with a view of accelerating the development of the IoT. The OIC specification would include a range of connectivity solutions, utilising existing and emerging wireless standards, compatible with a variety of operating systems.

5

COMPANY NEWS

PTC expands IoT portfolio with US$170m Axeda acquisition after ThingWorx buy NEWS IN BRIEF IT survey reveals that 57% of networks not IoT ready A survey of 400 IT professionals in the UK and USA has uncovered that while 86% of IT professionals understand what will be required for IoT (Internet of Things) deployments, 46% expect this to become part of their organisation’s existing network. Yet more than half (57%) reported their network is already at full capacity; and 54% see network infrastructure management as a high priority.

Infoblox recommends what network managers can do now to best prepare for the IoT deluge, including: Set network access policies for ‘things’ to prevent inefficient use of network resources; Assess control and automation systems to avoid being overwhelmed by manual tasks; and, consider deploying IPv6 to protect against the shortage of IPv4 addresses.

Tighter race among M2M module vendors According to the latest analysis from ABI Research, Sierra Wireless has maintained the top revenue position for M2M cellular modules for a third year.

However, the number two position, in terms of shipments, is becoming a much tighter race. Among three vendors, the market share spread is about 1% only.

PTC has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privatelyheld Axeda Corporation for approximately US$170 million in cash. Axeda’s technology, extensive customer Jim Heppelmann, President and base and CEO, PTC partnerships complement the PTC ThingWorx business (bought in December for $112m) and will accelerate abilities across the entire Internet of Things technology stack.

“In less than a year, PTC has quickly scaled to a position of leadership in helping manufacturers seize the opportunity presented by a smart, connected world,” said PTC president and CEO, Jim Heppelmann. “We

believe the combination of ThingWorx, Axeda, and our existing SLM and PLM solution portfolio will establish PTC as the only provider of true closed-loop lifecycle management solutions for the Internet of Things.”

Axeda serves more than 150 customers processing hundreds of millions of machine messages daily across multiple sectors. Its broad partner ecosystem includes mobile network operators, edge device and design-in device makers, systems integrators, and business systems/analytics providers, and several strategic OEM agreements.

Its cloud offering includes M2M and IoT connectivity services, software agents, and toolkits that enable companies to connect products to the cloud using virtually any communication channel, be it cellular, internet, WiFi, or satellite.

tado° raises €10m to fuel global expansion The smart thermostat company tado° has closed a new round of financing, raising €10m (US$13.6m) from current backers Target Partners and Shortcut Ventures, amongst others. tado° is the European market leader in intelligent climate control for consumers. Heating or AC systems with its technology automatically adjust to the users’ needs via a smartphone app. For instance, when residents are leaving, or approaching home, it sets the desired temperature accordingly. Weather forecasts, housing characteristics, and other smart algorithms make up tado°’s control strategy, which can achieve up to 31% energy savings.

The company plans to use the new investment to expand its brand globally. “Building a fully scalable Internet of Things technology platform and at the same time developing control interfaces for over 5,000 different types of heating systems has been a challenge over the last three years.

“We are fully committed to creating great products and cutting-edge technology. The new investment will further strengthen our position and allow us to maintain the huge technological head start we have gained in covering Europe's varying heating landscape,” says Johannes Schwarz, founder and CTO of tado°.

Commenting on the data, ABI’s practice director Dan Shey said, “This demonstrates a change in strategies from 2012 to 2013.

Some vendors have decided that value and one-stop shop services are more important; while other vendors are focused on driving volumes and building market share.”

The report is entitled ‘M2M Cellular Module Vendor Market Share’.

6

September 2014

PEOPLE NEWS Haidamus to head Nokia’s Technologies business

Nokia: Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia's technologies business

Ramzi Haidamus, a technology-licensing expert with proven business leadership skills and a strong innovation background, will step into a new role as president of Nokia's technologies business, and member of the group leadership team, with effect from September 3, 2014.

Born in Lebanon, Haidamus moved to the US where he completed degrees in electrical engineering at the University of the Pacific. He spent 17 years of his career with Dolby Laboratories, which he helped to grow from a US$72 million private business into a thriving US$1 billion public company.

"Ramzi has the perfect blend of technology savvy,

business leadership and innovation experience to head our cutting-edge technologies business," said Rajeev Suri, president and chief executive officer of Nokia. "With Ramzi at the head of the world-class Nokia Technologies team and our continuing investment in advanced research and development, we are well-positioned to drive the innovation and licensing business needed to move us closer to our goal of technology leadership in a world where everyone and everything is connected."

Henry Tirri, currently acting head of Nokia Technologies, will continue in this role until Haidamus joins. After this, Tirri will step down from the Group Leadership Team and become an advisor to Suri on technology issues.

Tidy made GM of ZTR Control Systems’ connected assets

ZTR: Michael Tidy, general manager

ZTR Control Systems has promoted Michael Tidy to general manager of its connected asset division telematics business. Tidy has over 25 years of building and transforming technology companies while driving value for both customers and shareholders.

He initially joined the company in 2010 as the director of commercial development leading the

building of sales and customer solutions organisations. In his new position Tidy is responsible for strategy, business development, marketing, sales, product development, channel partners, technical services and support.

Michael Tidy is also a member of ZTR’s executive management team that works to develop and implement strategic goals for the company.

Executive appointments position FreeWave for industrial M2M FreeWave has appointed Kim Niederman as chief executive officer (CEO). He has a successful leadership record in public and private companies, including: Cisco Systems, Polycom Inc., and FORE Systems, as well as several start-up firms.

FreeWave: Kim Niederman, CEO

Freewave: Steve Wulchin, president

Most recently, he served as president of 8x8, Inc

where the company's market cap increased five times to more than US$1 billion in the two and a half years under his leadership.

FreeWave’s co-founder, Steve Wulchin, will continue to serve as president, overseeing FreeWave’s penetration into existing and new international markets.

Antenova M2M appoints Orford as European sales manager

Antenova, Rob Orford

Specialist manufacturer of standard embedded surface mount antennas and RF antenna modules, Antenova M2M, has just appointed Rob Orford as European sales manager. He will take responsibility for Antenova’s distribution network throughout Europe, South Africa and Russia, as well as to direct OEM customers.

Reporting to the director and VP of sales Colin Newman, Rob will be promoting the company’s

high performance RF antennas, which are designed specifically for M2M wireless connected applications and consumer electronic devices.

Rob has specialised in working with RF antennas to date, having started out as a principal RF engineer for GEC Plessey, then working in sales roles with March Microwave, BFI Ibexsa (ACAL), and most recently with Anaren Microwave.

SIMalliance announces Board for 2014-15

SIMalliance Board: Alencar Nunes

SIMalliance Board: Michele Scarlatella

September 2014

Following annual elections for two of its six Board seats, SIMalliance has confimed its Board of Directors for 2014-15. The organisation is a global, non-profit industry association which simplifies secure element (SE) implementation to drive secure mobile services.

The Board members are Alencar Nunes da Silva Junior, telecom new business, products and solutions superintendent at VALID; and Michele Scarlatella, central marketing director, incard division, MMS Group at STMicroelectronics. Both Alencar and Michele have been re-elected to the Board and will serve a one year term.

7

CONTRACT NEWS

Cyan receives smart order for Tata Power Mumbai NEWS IN BRIEF Tele2 and NetComm Wireless partner for M2M A new strategic partnership aims to create new M2M & IoT opportunities. Tele2 AB (Tele2) and NetComm Wireless have allied to transform asset management capabilities across industrial automation, security, smart cities, and healthcare. This is part of a broader collaboration between leading M2M/IoT ecosystem partners, selected by the two companies.

NetComm Wireless' M2M/IoT devices provide the network connection and remote management components, enhancing operational and cost efficiencies, by allowing businesses to monitor and control mission-critical equipment and valuable assets over the Tele2 network.

A consortium, led by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has been selected by Tata Power Mumbai (Tata) for the deployment of Cyan’s CyLec® advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in India. Cyan is an integrated system John Cronin, and software design executive company delivering chairman, Cyan mesh-based wireless solutions for utility metering and lighting control.

Tata Power Mumbai, a Tata Group company, is part of India’s largest integrated power organisation. It has an international presence and approximately 400,000 retail customers. The initial deal is for the deployment of 5,000 consumer meters in a district in Mumbai planned to go live early 2015.

John Cronin, executive chairman, Cyan, feels that as Tata is viewed as a leader in its field its selection of the consortium’s AMI technology will act as an important reference for other utilities evaluating smart metering technologies across India.

OT expands M2M & IoT to app enablement with Cumulocity Mobility digital security experts, Oberthur Technologies (OT) have partnered with Cumulocity, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform provider.

Together, they will offer an application enablement and objects management platform for the machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT markets.

The partnership enables the collection of data from any connected object over any network and the ability to manage it in real-time. This latest contribution to the industry will have the flexibility to address various use cases, from fleet management and asset tracking to industrial remote maintenance and surveillance.

THE CONTRACT HOT LIST M2M Now August/September 2014 It's free to be included in The Contract Hot List, which shows the companies announcing recent contract wins or product deployments. Email your contract details to us now, marked "Hot List" at <news@m2mnow.biz> Vendor/Partners Aicent Apple ARAD Cyan Cybercom

Client, Country Syniverse, USA IBM, USA Obras Sanitarias del Estado, Latin America Tata Power Mumbai, India Atlas Copco, Sweden

EVRYTHNG

Thinfilm Electronics, Norway

RFaxis Gemalto

GreenPeak Technologies, USA GSMA, Africa

IDModeling Landis+Gyr littleBits Electronics Newport Media

City of Pomona, USA RWE, Germany RadioShack, USA Atmel® Corporation, USA

Oberthur Technologies

Cumulocity, Germany

Orange Business Services ORBCOMM PLAT.ONE

TAPcheck® Holding Europe Swing Transport, USA Telecom Italia Digital Solutions, Italy Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority, USA Undsiclosed smart networking customer Transport America, USA NetComm Wireless, USA TeliaSonera, Sweden Telefonica, London Volvo Cars, China

Sensus Silicom SkyBitz Tele2 AB Tele2 Norway Telit Wireless Solutions WirelessCar

Product / Service (Duration & Value) Completion of acquisition, expanding global communications network, for approx US$292m Exclusive global partnership to bring big data and analytics to iPhone and iPad Contract to supply 45,000 communicating positive displacement water meters

Awarded 8.2014 7.2014 7.2014

Selected to supply advanced metering infrastructure in India 5 month contract to help develop smart construction equipment for Dynapac Compaction Equipment AB Agreement to combine printed electronics, NFC, and cloud software to connect everyday objects to the web Collaboration to simplify chipset design for IoT in home automation and smart living initiatives Agreement to support mobile ecosystem with security expertise for 2 pan-African mHealth programmes Contract to supply Sedaru® platform for intelligent water network operations Deal to provide smart meters in Warsaw for use inside residential buildings Partnership to start connecting everyday objects to the internet in 2000 retail locations Agreement to acquire the provider of high performance low power WiFi and Bluetooth solutions for US$140m Partnership to offer application enablement and objects management platform for M2M and IoT industry Joint venture to connect after-care health monitoring objects across Europe, then internationally Selected to deliver comprehensive trailer tracking for 1000+ strong fleet of dry van trailers Contract to develop and deploy connected solutions to food and beverage vending machine enterprises Deal to provide FlexNet™ communication network, meter data management software, and customer portal Deal to implement Coleto Creek and Quad-Port 10G networking cards in next gen network appliances Deal to supply asset management technology for entire fleet of trailers Strategic partnership aims to transform asset management for vertical sectors Agreement to sell Tele2 Norway to TeliaSonera for an enterprise value of SEK 5.1bn Partnership to expand m2mAir mobile coverage across Europe and Latin America Deal to provide 'Volvo On Call' concierge services for customers in China

7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014 7.2014

More information on these and other News stories can be found at www.m2mnow.biz

8

September 2014

EVENT DIARY Super Mobility Week, Las Vegas, CTIA

locate, communicate, accelerate

M2M Summit Scandinavia 4-5 November 2014 Kista Exhibition Centre, Stockholm, Sweden www.m2m-summitscandinavia.com

European Utility Week

9-11 September 2014 Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, USA http://www.supermobilityweek.com

M2M Zone Conference & Pavilion @ CTIA 2014 Super Mobility Week 9-11 September 2014 Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, USA http://m2mzone.com/events/CTIA_20 14/CTIA2014_Pavillion.asp

Telecoms for Smart Grids 22-23 September 2014 Marriott Regent’s Park Hotel, London, UK www.smi-online.co.uk/2014telecomssmartgrids21.asp

4-6 November 2014 Rai Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.european-utility-week.com

Connected Automobiles 2014 12-13 November 2014 Lingotto Congress Centre, Turin, Italy www.connectedautomobiles.eu

Apps World – Wearable Technologies 12-13 November 2014 ExCeL, London, UK www.apps-world.net/europe

Apps World – Connected Cars

Auto Apps Evolution 2014 22-23 September 2014 Maritim proArte Hotel Berlin, Germany http://automotive-apps2014.weconect.com

M2M Summit Europe Sheraton Hotel and Spa, Madrid, Spain 23-25 September 2014 www.m2meu.com

Distribution Automation Europe 29-30 September 2014 Holiday Inn Regent’s Park, London, UK www.smi-online.co.uk/2014distri bution-automation21.asp

TEE Conference 2014 30 September 2014 Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara, California, USA www.teeseminar.org

M2M Summit 2014 20-21 October 2014 Congress Centre, Düsseldorf, Germany www.m2m-summit.com

Intelligent Sensor Networks Conference 4 November 2014 High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, The Netherlands www.isnconference.com

September 2014

12-13 November 2014 ExCeL, London, UK http://www.apps-world.net/europe/ agenda/tracks/connected-cars

u-blox u-b b lo ox SARA-U2: S SA A RA RA-U2 U2:

Automotive Tech.

AD Detroit 2014 17-18 November 2014 Marriott Troy Detroit, Michigan, USA http://autonomous-driving-techdetroit.we-conect.com

Connected Fleets USA 20-21 November 2014 Westin Buckhead, Atlanta, USA www.telematicsupdate.com/fleet/cont ent3.php

IoT World Forum 25-26 November 2014 London, UK http://iotinternetofthingsconference.com

TM Forum Live!

Digital Disruption 8-10 December 2014 San Jose, California, USA www.tmforum.org/dd14M2M

the th h e world’s wo o rld ld’’s smallest small lle le e stt 3 module 3G modu dule le

PRODUCT NEWS

Google’s next Android counts on Bluetooth® smart technology Bluetooth smart technology is livening up the Internet of Things. It’s bringing wireless connectivity to practically any object and lends a powerful platform to developers.

ABI Research’s recent ‘Bluetooth Market Research’ said that the IoT will keep demand strong for standalone Bluetooth ICs (integrated circuits). The firm predicts that the share of standalone Bluetooth ICs will be about 40% by the end of 2014, remaining so until the end of 2019.

Interestingly, the next Android operating system (OS) is one of the

first to be based on Bluetooth version 4.1. This adds the building blocks for IPv6 connectivity and opens the door for the “always-on” hub or gateway – an essential component of the smart home.

The L-release, designed for phones, tablets and future devices, includes native support for Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Classic. This means that devices running ‘L’ can connect to virtually any of the billions of Bluetooth enabled wearables, beacons, health and fitness sensors, phones, tablets, cars, and PCs. A press release from the company

Democratising the IoT little bit by littleBits Hitting the streets this month, cloudBit, from littleBits Electronics, makes it possible to snap the internet to anything. The company’s mission is to put the power of electronics in the hands of everyone, thereby democratising the Internet of Things.

The offering can turn objects into internet-connected devices in just

suggests that, both now and in the future, these types of devices will be able to connect to one another as well as to hundreds of millions of diverse Bluetooth Smart accessories and applications.

20 minutes, be it recreating the most popular connected devices, prototyping the next billion dollar idea, or solving a problem. Any module included in the company’s Cloud Starter Bundle can be paired with others from the littleBits library to create trillions of combinations and ideas. The cloudBit is available for $59 or included in the Bundle for $99.

Equipment insight from GE for OEMs GE Intelligent Platforms has unveiled a new approach to ‘equipment insight’.

The solution, from GE PredictivityTM enables OEMs to securely collect data from connected machines, analyse it, and extract actionable information to deliver better service levels and optimise equipment performance. Leading to new revenue streams and improved customer satisfaction, the system is powered by GE’s Proficy® software and rugged RXi IPCs. The offering also gives OEMs a better understanding of how customers use their machines, while helping them to optimise processes, asset performance and profitability.

ZTR takes telematics off-road Combining on and off-road intelligence in one package, ZTR’s latest compact OBDII hardware attaches to almost any vehicle. The system generates reports that should help to reduce the true cost to own (TCO) for service vehicles, thanks to usage-based business intelligence.

“ZTR developed the on-road vehicle package in response to customers asking to streamline monitoring of equipment and service vehicles,” said Michael Tidy, general manager, ZTR connected asset division. “They want to be able to view their off-road equipment and on-road vehicles in one place.”

10

The system runs on the i3™ platform which allows users to integrate all telematics in one place with one login. Reports are delivered when and where customers want, including vehicle usage, weekly single asset or fleet views, trip details, alarms; and breadcrumbs pinpoint vehicle locations on a smartphone.

the location of an asset, access journey playback and other timed events, reporting, and customised alerts.

For vehicles that don’t need to be constantly monitored, TRACKER’s new Vision Sprint brings simple fleet connectivity. It’s a plug-and-play satnav device that incorporates fleet tracking and can be transferred between vehicles. An in-cab Garmin terminal allows managers to pinpoint

September 2014

ORBCOMM. LAUNCHING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SATELLITE M2M.

INTRODUCING OUR NEW OG2 CONSTELLATION. With the launch of our new, more advanced OG2 satellites, ORBCOMM is taking its satellite service to the next level. Our OG2 satellites will deliver faster service, larger message sizes, better coverage at higher latitudes and increased network capacity, all with reduced power requirements. Plus, our OG2 satellites are 100% backwards compatible for our existing globally deployed customers. So, get ready to take advantage of our enhanced services from the only network purpose-built for satellite M2M. ORBCOMM. M2M..

ORBCOMM. The The leader leader in satellite satellite M2M Contact us today to launch YOUR next generation of solutions.

Call 1.800.ORBCOMM or visit www.orbcomm.com/contact

ww www.orbcomm.com/contact w.orbcomm.com/contact

TALKING HEADS

Complexity is good for business The more information that you gather, the smarter you can work and the more cost-efficient you can become Compared to other sectors of the communications industry - or indeed any other business area - the sheer variety of technologies, standards, applications, and commercial models possible in the M2M space can make it a daunting environment for users to navigate. For Dan McDuffie, CEO of M2M/IoT connectivity platform specialist Wyless, that complexity is actually good for business. It continually creates new opportunities for his company as it expands globally, through acquisitions and partnerships, into new markets and use cases. Alun Lewis reports.

DM: At its most basic, we’re into plumbing and services - that is, we provide connectivity from the device across networks to the enterprise or cloud. Around that core offering there’s a wide range of service, support, design and consultancy that we undertake to help our customers get the maximum strategic return on their deployments. On the one hand, we integrate M2M into their existing systems; and on the other, extending reliable connectivity to wherever in the world they need it.

Wyless began life a little over 10 years ago

12

focused on providing that core connectivity.

Since then, then we’ve grown our capabilities in line with the emerging needs of the markets we work in. Our clients provide their own imagination – we provide the supporting APIs, technologies, network access and enabling skills, including in many cases the devices and deployment services themselves.

M2M Now: It’s certainly a dynamic market.

But the word dynamic often also implies uncertainty and risk. What aspects of the current M2M space do you currently see as changing the fastest? ▼

M2M Now: Dan, where do you currently position Wyless in the M2M/IoT landscape?

September 2014

“After a century or so of total market dominance, some players are still finding it difficult to realise that their continued existence now relies on partnering closely with other specialist players in equal peerto-peer ways.”

On top of that, we’re seeing changes to the regulatory environment as far as the spectrum is concerned, freeing up small chunks of bandwidth – which are ideally suited to M2M services and increase the agility of the different solutions available. Finally, there’s also an evergrowing range of low power wireless connectivity options that can be deployed to create inbuilding coverage, mesh networks, or even personal area networks to support fitness, healthcare and lifestyle M2M applications.

That said, these technology options are only a means to an end. And that ultimate end is all about creating new business models, adding value to existing operations, helping companies and their customers reinvent themselves, and extracting actionable intelligence from devices, sensors and connected plant, equipment and products.

That’s where Big Data tools, specific supporting hardware packages, and mission-specific creativity and insight come into play. It’s also where we’re able to help innovators realise their visions in the most productive, secure, and costeffective ways possible. The more information that you gather, the smarter you can work and the more cost-efficient you can become.

navigate across the boundaries between these different functional silos to make M2M and IoT as simple to use as possible. We call this entire product line Core2Cloud and we believe now, more than ever, that the time has come for a single company to offer as many of these services in one place as possible.

M2M Now: As you raise the topic of boundaries, there seems to be increasing requirement in the M2M space to support global operations – I understand that Wyless has recently made some international acquisitions?

DM: In February we acquired a majority stake in TM Data – the first Brazilian M2M operator – and thus have created Wyless Brazil. We're now connected to the four main cellular networks in that country – Vivo, Claro, OI and TIM – and we see the Brazilian presence acting as an important jumping-off point for growing our entire business line across South America and supporting companies from other parts of the world who want to target that region.

Meanwhile, in Europe, earlier this year we also acquired ASPIDER M2M, a Dutch company with a significant and successful focus on the Benelux and German-speaking markets. This represents much more than just geographical diversity play however, as now we have our own core network, open SIM and associated solutions with customers like Philips Lighting, in a sector where

▼

DM: It’s obviously difficult to select a single specific driver amongst all the frenetic activity out there, but I’d say that one of the most interesting developments in the last few years concerns the range of wireless connectivity options now available. For a start, there’s the truly explosive, and highly successful, growth of LTE deployments across many parts of the world.

And, obviously, we wrap all these services with the functions needed for customers to control their own destinies – connected devices, lifecycle management, web stores, billing, Quality of Service and so on. We help our customers

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WYLESS September 2014

13

TALKING HEADS

M2M and IoT technologies have a huge role to play in both public and private lighting environments, as well as related smart grid and energy efficiency.

Dan McDuffie talks to Alun Lewis, for M2M Now magazine.

Each part of the world tends to take slightly different approaches to M2M/IoT

Each part of the world tends to take slightly different approaches to M2M/IoT. These are often largely dictated or influenced by the strategies of the regional cellular operators. Some have tried – or are still trying – to enter this market themselves, but they soon realise the specialist skills and platforms required to deliver robust and cost-effective services require heavy investment in what’s currently a tight financial part of the cycle for them.

This is where the thorny issue of standards – or the lack of them – also impacts the direct entry of MNOs into this market. There’s a big difference between simply selling a SIM card for an M2M application and providing comprehensive support for a truly end-to-end M2M/IoT solution over a product and service lifecycle that is going to be measured in years. Both the MNOs and their customers need an independent third party with the skills, tools, platforms and equipment available – that benefits both ends of the value chain – and makes deployment a breeze. We like to think that by being that company, we offer freedom of choice for our partners, not just over the network but across the entire value chain that’s needed to develop and deploy innovative applications.

Driving that, we’ve got close relationships with almost 20 large domestic and international operators, several of whom are using our Porthos service management platform to offer white label services directly to their customers. Complementing those relationships, we also run four highly scalable Network Operations Centres (NOCs) for our private network and cloud services with our network partner Interoute, providing the high levels of resilience, security and redundancy that we in turn need to offer to our own clients. In fact, together with Interoute and their innovative new Virtual Data Centre product, we have the capability to ‘carbon copy’ our Porthos Cloud into what could soon be up to a dozen international locations.

M2M Now: Talking to you I get the impression that you, and Wyless, seem to revel in the sheer diversity of applications and business models now evolving out there amongst your customer base. Which user stories in particular do you find the most compelling either in originality or in impact?

DM: That’s a difficult question as I’d like to think that all our customers are unique and each deserves their own share of voice. At a pinch, and as a fairly representative selection of the breadth of customers that we support, I’d probably start with one application area that has potentially huge personal implications for all of us – or at least those of us who are law-abiding.

We are working on providing a full package of

14

connectivity hardware and services to a really innovative British company called Facewatch.

Over the last few years, it has built a thriving business, thoroughly endorsed by the British police, that allows pub and shop owners to capture CCTV images of thieves and pickpockets who have hit their premises and customers, and securely share these and supporting witness statements with others in their retail communities and with the police. It’s a very nice example of how our M2M platform can exploit multiple different technologies: CCTV, smartphones, mobile apps, social networking, cloud computing, and facial recognition all for the public good.

Following the success of the system in the UK, Facewatch is receiving huge interest from many other countries and we look forward to using our international presence to help them expand geographically. Another Wyless customer, BiaSport, is also focused on personal safety and health. It has developed a smart watch/GPS/ wearable combo aimed specifically at women.

Combining a number of functions, it not only allows its users to track and monitor their activities while swimming, running and cycling and share their performance through social media, but also has an alert button that automatically sends an SMS and location map to a preset list of contacts if something untoward happens while the user is out exercising.

Finally, there’s the Philips Lighting example that I mentioned earlier. It’s difficult for us to imagine, today, how life-changing the appearance of electric lighting in public spaces was around 130 years ago. While lighting technologies have obviously advanced considerably since then, there’s huge potential from M2M, IoT and SmartCity perspectives to start to control and manage that lighting in intelligent and dynamic ways to ensure energy isn’t wasted, repairs are completed quickly and cost–effectively, and the urban living environment remains secure and safe.

M2M Now: And any final thoughts or observations on possible roadblocks in the path towards the M2M future?

DM: If there’s one thing that does concern me (and others I know in the industry), then it’s what can only be called an unjustified arrogance amongst some members of the telecoms sector.

After a century or so of total market dominance, some players are still finding it difficult to realise that their continued existence now relies on partnering closely with other specialist players in equal peer-to-peer ways.

Despite having developed and deployed some pretty amazing technologies, many telcos have – ironically – been very bad at innovating when it comes to services and applications. The days of the old status quo are over and business models or technologies once seen as subversive must be recognised as the only viable path ahead for them. We call that Over the Top Technology - and that brings true freedom to the IoT vision.

September 2014

INSIGHT REPORT

SMART UTILITIES

The benefits and challenges of making utilities smart

Analyst Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Smart Utilities Prepared by Beecham Research Download your free copy here [ ]

GOLD SPONSOR

GOLD SMART PREPAID UTILITY BILLING Smart Energy Billing for centralized prepayment, flexible tariffs, and customer interaction ‘

Orga Systems GOLD Utility product enables end-to-end prepaid billing in smart grid infrastructures. The system is designed around an IT based software platform that manages tariffs, wallets, rating and pricing centrally, enabling the use of cost efficient standard AMI meters also for prepayment.

Innovative price plans, promotions and rewards Fast tariff configurations and roll out Real-time cost control and customer information Smart prepaid electricity vending ‘

Find out more about Orga Systems GOLD Utility and contact us: www.orga-systems.com/gold-utility

LLondon ondon UK | C Cambridge ambridge UK | B Boston oston USA

www.beechamresearch.com www.beechamresearch.c om | info@beechamresearch.com fo | +44 (0)207 (0)2 749 1944 | Beecham Research, 2 Bath Place, Rivington Street, London EC2A 3DR

SPONSOR’S PROFILE

COMPANY INSIGHT:

Telit Wireless Solutions Telit Wireless Solutions (a brand of Telit Communications PLC) is a global provider of wireless M2M products and services. The company began by providing engineering services to the telecoms industry. Since then it has evolved – from a provider of cellular modules – to that of wireless modules and value-added services, including cloud based management. It is now one of the leading suppliers of connectivity infrastructure, for M2M communications, as well a provider of satellite positioning (GNSS) and automotive telematics module technology.

Credentials Telit has over 700 staff in 35 sales offices and eight R&D centres worldwide. In 2013 it reported revenues of US$243.2 million. With some 5,000 customers worldwide, the company is active in a range of industries including automotive telematics, energy, healthcare, security, and consumer electronics.

The company recognised the potential of the M2M market 12 years ago; since then it has grown organically and through acquisitions, including Motorola’s M2M business (in 2011) and ILS Technologies (in 2013). Today it claims to be among the top three global module suppliers along with Sierra Wireless and Gemalto. It also claims to be the largest supplier to the industrial internet – which covers M2M applications deployed in commercial and industrial systems, fleet equipment, and the automotive sector.

Telit is an active member in standards definitions bodies for a number of segments and application areas involving M2M, including the European Smart Metering Industry Group (ESMIG), where it participates in a number of committees. It is also a member of the UNI-CIG Committee (Comitato Italiano Gas) which is defining wireless standards for Italy’s large scale smart gas meter project.

With ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Telit is involved with the M2M technical committee.

As part of the Intel Intelligent Systems Alliance, Telit also has early access to roadmaps for Intel platform releases, as well as the ability to test platforms and offer design support.

Registered address: Telit Wireless Solutions 7th Floor, 90 High Holborn London WC1V 6XX United Kingdom

Key Differentiators Telit claims to be unique among module suppliers in supporting all relevant technologies for M2M deployments, including wireless (LTE, GSM/GPRS, UMTS/WEDGE/HSPA+ and CDMA/EV-DO) and short-range (ZigBee, Wireless M-Bus and gateways from SigFox), with over 150 different modules available. Its modules power utility deployments including smart energy and smart water metering.

Further, the company developed its own protocol stack, both with GSM/GPRS and short-range network protocols. It believes that the flexibility

afforded by total control over the stack (the most critical software component in the module architecture) allows it to respond quickly to individual needs, while customers can launch their products rapidly into target markets.

Telit also claims to offer longer life-cycle support for its modules. This means that customers don’t need to upgrade a module before the business necessitates it. Further, its ONE STOP.ONE SHOP is a ‘go-to-market’ model that was developed to accelerate the adoption and integration of M2M into devices. Telit believes that this approach reduces development costs and time to market for customers’ M2M connected products, compared with traditional multi-vendor sourcing.

It comes with Platform as a Service (PaaS) support and enablement tools to manage the device data, and with back-end integration with the customers’ business systems.

The company also moved to augment its module OEM business with platform-centric enterprise solutions. Its m2mAIR Cloud has allowed it to move up one level into application enablement, delivering end-to-end solutions that go from the sensors through to the cloud and on to the enterprise environment.

This offering is based on a PaaS model, utilising ILS Technology’s solutions coupled with Telit’s own platform development efforts; it aims to make value-added cloud services such as managed security key points of differentiation.

Non-Telit equipment can also be supported through a software agent deployed near the module (eg. a gateway) thanks to m2mAIR Cloud.

Competitive Pressures As a founding member of the International M2M Council, Telit is dedicated to the advocacy and education to drive adoption of M2M and of the nascent IoT. Telit and its competitors are pursuing a similar strategy of wrapping cloud management and application service capabilities to augment their module/hardware businesses, in readiness for the arrival of real IoT implementations. The company has stated it is not ruling out additional acquisitions in vertical markets.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELIT 28

September 2014

Make the world smarter and your business better

Smarter together

At Telenor Connexion we believe in a smarter and more sustainable world through the use of connected services. Together with our customers and partners we are creating a smarter society â&#x20AC;&#x201C; every day. We are talking about smart homes, smart cars, smart energy, smart healthcare and more.

With more than 15 years of experience in designing and operating connected business solutions, we make it easy for you to connect your products and realize smart services. We help you optimize your connected product along every step of the way, from design and operations to continued development.

Connect with us!

Give us a call +46 8 410 338 00 or visit www.telenorconnexion.com

EXPERT OPINION

The Glass Boardroom: A brave new world IoT is reinventing the way we manage and do business The Internet of Things is changing the dynamics of how corporate management works. One example of this, writes Oozi Cats, CEO at Telit Communications PLC, is allowing the older style, traditional graphs and charts - based on months-old data - to be replaced by dynamically assembled dashboards of business context, synthesised in real time with interactive, big data analysis systems utilising immersive telepresence, aided by the smarter, context-aware sensor networks.

The new workforce As the generation that has never known a world without the internet and cell phones enters the workforce, it is only natural to expect business dynamics to change. And change they will. Not only because these new workers have a totally different perspective on the unachievable, ie. they do not think much is outside the realm of possibility; but also because they are arriving at their desks just as the information technology (IT) and cellular industries converge once again.

This congregation spawns two new spaces that are so revolutionary that every top tier technology company is rushing to christen them with their own names; and every analyst trying to wrap their minds around the perplexingly vast reach of their impact – the Internet of Things and Big Data.

Although rapidly changing, corporate decisionmaking processes are still, for the most part, structured around hierarchical data collection systems, from the lowest levels of the supply/distribution chain, progressively moving up into departments. Eventually these processes make their way into boardrooms as performance charts, graphs, and red-flags, feeding traditional go/no-go project reviews, product launch evaluations, customer satisfaction issues, and others.

IT is the engine of change for business A remarkable engine of change since the 1960s, IT has evolved from standalone mainframes to networks of PCs and other types of computing devices; and at every step of this evolution, caused drops in the lag between the time data is collected at the edge and its arrival in the boardroom. But even with this trail blazing evolution, bar a few exceptions, processes have remained confined to data collected from business information assets inside the corporate campus.

Then, in the mid ‘80s innovators like Federal Express started revolutionising corporate operations with truly global deployment of business processes reaching and interacting with assets outside the gates. When that happened,

30

managers became capable of actually “gleaning” fundamental elements of their businesses associated to operations outside the gates, such as position and condition of raw materials, work in progress, and finished goods in transit to and from suppliers, customers and logistics partners; rather than simply estimating them.

A new wave of productivity 2G cellular technology begets M2M and a new wave of productivity gains. About a decade later, with the arrival of the second generation cellular telephony, mobile phone manufacturers started spinning up departments to take on the development of the data side of cellular technology. Until then, this was non-existent because of the total focus on voice communications. With that effort, hightechnology witnessed the arrival of the cellular communication module, a component that could be embedded into the electronics of machines, cars, truck, alarm systems and others, to carry out not only voice communications, but were also interfaced with that remote assets’ data systems and relay information (such as geo-position, temperature, and other telemetry) and conversely receive data from the central office to unlock a door, disable a faulty sensor, and so on.

Economic power This marked the birth of Machine-to-Machine communication (M2M), an event of great impact and which continued extending the reach of business processes.

The economic power of the internet redefining business In the ‘90s, as the internet grew, analysts quickly moved to establish its impact on the broader economy; particularly considering that traditional commerce bricks-and-mortar retail prices typically include a 50% burden for distribution margin stacking, a large value component that the internet could replace in almost its entirety.

With global goods retail, valued in the trillions of dollars, the potential represented by the internet was an economy in (and of) itself. The drive to retrieve the 50% became the initial and pivotal push to expand the internet’s role in corporate processes at a very fast pace. Indeed, it is this

▼

The utility industry is not traditionally known for being fast moving. In fact, much of the utility infrastructure around the globe hasn’t changed significantly for a hundred years or more

September 2014

that started the change of the way we work, and the way we are measured for performance and professional development.

With their evolution, these processes hungered for access to assets even further outside the campus, driving advancements in the M2M industry, quickly pushing it to intersect the emerging cloud space. Cloud technology opens up the opportunity for machines, sensors, and other devices to upload and store vast amounts of raw data. This becomes the analysis base upon which new models can be developed for assessing performance, profitability, competitiveness, and other business metrics. All in nearly real-time.

The Glass Boardroom Just as pilots in a glass-cockpit jet plane can punch up highlevel information from hundreds of sensors and systems into manageable displays, so will new managers in the modern boardroom – the Glass Boardroom. In this environment, managers can leverage big data analytics to glean performance metrics of campaigns, product changes and launches, right as they are being rolled out. What’s more, managers can interact with assets all the way to the very edge of the supply/operation chain and view amalgamated real-time results and data analytics-based predictions and trends, including competitive performance.

Immersive telepresence Along with placing cloud-powered, big data analytics at managers’ fingertips, another way M2M is creating the Glass Boardroom - and fundamentally changing the way we work is by facilitating development of the emerging space of Immersive Telepresence.

With the generational evolution of video teleconferencing, these new system concepts allow managers, sitting half a world apart from one another and from the key business assets they manage. It brings ways to view and interact with peers and systems seamlessly, and substantially more effectively than current generation collaboration systems.

Challenges and opportunities for utilities The utility industry is not traditionally known for being fast moving. In fact, much of the utility infrastructure around the globe hasn’t changed significantly for a hundred years or more. This simple fact; combined with global population growth, advances in building systems like air conditioning, a growing trend toward electric vehicles and more, has created a major burden on utility companies to address both conservation and load balancing with a fresh approach. As utilities roll out smart meters and remote system monitoring, they can begin to address these challenges in new and sustainable ways. The glass boardroom not only enables them to better manage billing and save money on operations, it also allows them to access real-time load data and provide user incentives down to the individual household in order to avoid rolling brown outs, or worse, blackouts – ultimately providing better service to each of their customers.

Oozi Cats, CEO, Telit Communications PLC

Telit and the Glass Boardroom On the 12-year journey leading to this reinvention of the boardroom, Telit has been part of the charge that enabled the original M2M movement and now the Internet of Things.

We welcome the world’s new thinkers and encourage the continued and relentless challenge of boundaries and limitations. Our products and services are about simplifying the connection of ‘things’ to the Internet of Things as we continue adding value to the business process revolution, making our jobs more about thinking than about conforming.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELIT September 2014

31

SEPTEMBER

V O L U M E

4

I S S U E

2014

4

The CEO Guide to European Utility Week, Amsterdam

Wolfgang Kroh, Orga Systems’ CEO, on the key role of centralised billing

▼

Utilities’ smart grids need smarter billing systems

LATEST NEWS & VIDEOS AT www.m2mnow.biz

P R O F I T

F R O M

A

W O R L D

O F

C O N N E C T E D

D E V I C E S

INTERVIEW

Smart grids require smarter, more sophisticated billing systems. Many power utility companies struggle with an antiquated metering estate that makes it hard to introduce new kinds of dynamic pricing and realtime charging. To find out more about these issues, and how a centralised billing system can help to address them, Principal Analyst at Machina Research, Jeremy Green spoke to Wolfgang Kroh (pictured), CEO of Orga Systems, a software vendor bringing its expertise in telecoms convergent billing to the utility domain.

34

September 2014

â&#x2013;ź

Utilities must transform their business from technology-driven to customer-centric

“The introduction of smart metering and smart grid technology is one of the most disruptive changes to the utility industry.”

Wolfgang Kroh, Orga Systems

Jeremy Green: What are the main drivers for utility companies to move towards prepayment?

Wolfgang Kroh: The utility industry is on the verge of a technological change with new technologies, new domains and new business models introduced around smart metering and smart grid roll-outs. In addition regulatory, environmental and commercial factors have created a significant shift in focus in a once monopolistic utilities industry.

What are the main challenges in implementing prepayment in a utility setting?

WK: Upgrading or replacing existing customer information systems are long-term investments and business-critical projects incorporating technological and financial risks. Industries such as telecommunication have proven successfully that a ‘best of breed’ strategy and stepwise approach will limit the risks of such a transformation.

Implementing an adjunct smart rating and flexible pricing engine, closely integrated with customer communication channels, helps to boost the business agility without renewing the whole billing and CIS landscape. There is no need to decide on hardware technology today that will sit on the customer side for decades.

Managing the rating and pricing centrally means keeping one system up to date instead of thousands or millions of meters installed onsite and being delivered by various vendors.

Offering new services such as prepaid, cost control and budgeting to their customers and bringing a more real-time customer experience into play are opportunities to unlock new streams of revenue for utilities. With the roll-out of smart meters, prepayment should become an ingredient of the back-end system for any utility.

One of the major challenges utilities are facing when introducing prepayment is a lack of infrastructure for vending and distribution of electricity. Sometimes service bureaux and offices are available, but they barely fulfill the expectations of customers for opening hours or capabilities for convenient balance reloads. ▼

Utility companies need to transform their current technology-driven organisation into a customer-centric business that is able to meet consumers’ expectations. They need to find new and intelligent ways of managing their energy supply and monetise their assets.

Finding the right business cases is key to utility companies and smart metering and prepaid billing as well as new customer interaction capabilities are essential.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH ORGA SYSTEMS September 2014

35

INTERVIEW

“Providing tangible, visible, and direct benefits to consumers is key.”

Wolfgang Kroh, Orga Systems

How does the introduction of a centralised prepayment billing system benefit the utility in terms of cost reduction?

WK: The utility industry is traditionally a hardware-driven business characterised by long investment cycles for generation sites and network infrastructure. Well-proven technology decisions have to limit the risk that comes with huge investments in these areas.

Futureproof architectures and systems are an imperative to this.

In a centralised system design for smart metering using a thin meter infrastructure, the business model is no longer a question of hardware and meters. Launching a prepaid energy offering is simply a new type of payment model the customer can select. No need to send out workforce to change meters, no additional hardware investment – just assigning a new tariff in the billing and the customer migration is done. It becomes a question of minutes to introduce new service offerings in a centralised billing infrastructure that is designed around an IT-based pricing and billing. A new level of flexibility and efficiency can be achieved when keeping tariffs, configurations and pricing centralised and close to the IT back office.

36

Are there other benefits for the utility company, for example in terms of relationships with customers and / or competitive advantage vs. peers?

WK: Customers expect changes to the offered products and services to be usable instantly and maybe with the option to go back after a period of trial. We were told by one of our clients, Meralco, the largest energy supplier in the Philippines, that customers want to manage things similarly across different areas of their digital life. Being able to offer this kind of customer orientation fuels acceptance of new offers and cross-promotions of add-on services!

Select the customer, change his payment settings to prepaid – ‘save and close’ - and a former postpaid customer becomes prepaid without touching the field. Next to the customer experience side of flexible tariffs, this opens up new options for utilities to introduce an enhanced revenue collection and to reduce bad debt.

With a centralised billing system all tariffs available for postpaid customers can be continued in a prepaid service. This is an additional and essential element in changing the market perception of prepaid energy.

Prepaid becomes a true payment option, with budget control for both customer and utility company instead of a penalty for bad debt customers. All this is based on a lean thin meter infrastructure that limits investment and improves the return on invest. ▼

To ensure a positive customer experience, the reload of the account has to be as simple as possible. Full support of vending via several channels such as online portals, smartphone apps as well as streetseller and kiosk sales models, is a must for closing the loop of billing, engagement and the ability to interact with customers successfully.

September 2014

“Showing customers actual and timely data is a must to get connected.”

Wolfgang Kroh, Orga Systems

What are the benefits for the customer?

WK: Closing the loop to customers delivers the ground for budget control, more dynamic tariffs, and new services, bundles and promotions. Showing customers actual and timely data is a must to get connected. To create positive energy experience consumption data and cost transparency must be linked to the customer behaviour. Being instantly informed via mobile devices, a web portal or a home display is what attracts people’s attention.

Customers need relevant and understandable information instantly delivered that gives them the opportunity to react. In order to target customers, instant information enhanced by recommendations and predictions are essential.

It is not only about informing, providing information or notifications. A two-way communication with customers is giving them the possibility to interact. It is about the possibility of opting in, choosing a tariff or refilling a prepaid account anywhere and at any time.

Can you tell us about the relationship between smart grid technology and prepayment, and about the wider social and environmental benefits that these bring?

WK: The introduction of smart metering and smart grid technology is one of the most disruptive changes to the utility industry.

Utilities need to think beyond just providing energy to their customers. New technologies

and infrastructures create opportunities to offer new products that change the way customers use services and interact with their utility companies. Providing tangible, visible, and direct benefits to consumers is key to exploiting new areas of business and operational efficiencies that are dependent upon customer intimacy.

All clients should have access to their usage information and benefit from the flexibility a prepayment model can provide. For example in developing countries, customers who cannot afford to pay a fixed monthly fee for energy can now have an option to purchase and use energy as no instalments have to be paid. And even if serving your clients with prepayment is restricted by law, like in Germany, utility providers are allowed to install a prepayment meter if a customer is not paying his bills and the meter has been removed more than once.

Smart metering promises to radically transform how utilities serve their customers.

With smart meters available that can operate in both credit and prepayment modes, there is no more need for dedicated prepayment meters that are costly for utilities to run.

Switching between payment modes can be done easily from the utility back office.

In the end it is all about talking the customers’ language and the question is how utility companies can transform their current technology-driven organisation into a customer-centric business that is able to meet customers’ expectations.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH ORGA SYSTEMS September 2014

37

EVENT PREVIEW

What is there to learn about utilities and the development of the Smart Home?

European Utility Week (November 4-6, 2014 in Amsterdam) is pioneering a new type of show. Unlike previous years, much of the utility-led content is going to be available free of charge on the exhibition floor.

Across both the strategic programme (in the conference area) and the case study programme (on the exhibition floor), the development of the Smart Home and the effect this has on the utility industry will be thoroughly explored.

Presentation highlights include: • Smart Home and Connected Home Products: The Business View in Germany Dr Michael Westermeier, technical product manager, Smart Homes, RWE Efficiency GmbH • Active Citizen, Customer Engagement from the System Operator Viewpoint Susana Bañares Hernandez, head of DSM department, Red Eléctrica de España; Marta Huerta Arribas, DSM department, Red Eléctrica de España • Working with Utilities to Develop New Consumer Engagement Services Andy Baynes, director of business development, Nest • Disintermediation Risk is Emerging – Who Will Own the Future Customer Relationship?

John McKiernan, head of external collaboration, ESB • Smart Consumer, Smart Customer, Smart Citizen Project: Empowering Smart Customers to Participate in Active Demand and Energy System Efficiency Peter Verboven, business development, EnergyVille • Integrating the Smart Meter in the Smart Home Yves Dherbecourt, senior project manager, EDF • What More can Utilities do to Enhance their Role in Development of the Smart Home?

Dr Bartosz Wojszczyk, chief innovation officer, head of strategy and innovation office, Meralco;

38

Colin Calder, CEO, PassivSystems; Anne-Soizic Ranchère, market strategy director, EnergyPool; Holger Knopke, platform Qivicon, Deutsche Telekom; Louise Hahn, vice president, customers & markets, B2C, DONG Energy; Dr Peter C. Honebein, adjunct Professor, Indiana University Besides Smart Homes & Consumer Engagement, European Utility Week covers the Grid & Renewables Integration, Storage, Smart Metering ICT & Grid Security, Smart Cities and Smart Water to give you a complete end-to-end view. With around 300 speakers speaking across 10 different content tracks, there is much more for you to see & learn. Check the website for the full speaker list of both programmes.

Additionally, the exhibition floor of European Utility Week – the largest of its kind in Europe – offers unparalleled opportunities to find out more about the technology and innovation shaping the present and future of smart energy from 350+ leading solution providers. Products and services on display include: IT/ICT utility services, smart home & end user engagement, smart metering solutions, T&D operations infrastructure, storage, smart water and smart cities solutions.

Get your M2M Now discount!

As a reader of M2M Now magazine, we would like to welcome you to Amsterdam on 4-6 November, and are pleased to offer a 20% discount on your strategic conference pass, or a FREE visitor pass to the exhibition including access to the case study programme. Use promotional code MED1003 to claim either the free pass or the 20% discount! www.european-utility-week.com

September 2014

PREPAID UTILITIES

Lighting up future utility models Prepayment metering and the smart grid The concept of prepaid service has long been recognised as a major driver in the explosive growth of mobile communications.

With the rising costs of utility services, and the deployment of those services increasing across developing countries, and the availability of smart meters and smart grid infrastructure, Alun Lewis asks how long it will be until pre-paid models start being widely applied in this sector.

With the utilities, it’s a much more complex, multi-faceted and messy picture which has huge implications for the use of pre-paid systems.

Models of ownership and control of the different elements of the supply chain vary hugely from country to country – as do standards in many supporting areas. On top of this must be added social and political sensitivities that are absent in other industry sectors.

Access to essential utilities can sometimes mean the literal difference between life and death where vulnerable people or extreme weather conditions are concerned. What electric utility company is going to want to be blamed – and their brand and share price affected - when an

September 2014

automated process leads to the disconnection and resulting hypothermic demise of a pensioner?

Leading the way So far, for a number of historic and political reasons, only two countries – and, rather oddly, one Australian island – are aggressively pursuing pre-payment smart meter-based deployments for energy utilities. The UK and Zimbabwe, with Tasmania bringing up the rear, are leading the field as Rick Hanks, managing director, resources and smart meter lead for EMEA and Latin America at Accenture, explained:

The author is Alun Lewis, freelance telecoms writer

“These countries are the only ones with a history of the comparatively widespread use of prepayment systems, with the UK currently running at around 15%. It’s important here to understand the contexts in which prepayment has usually been applied in the past – and those contexts usually involve pre-payment meters being imposed on consumers as a result of them being perceived to be bad credit risks.

He added: “In the past, installing prepayment meters and providing the infrastructure of payment and retail systems and keys to support

▼

The answer for most markets, perhaps surprisingly, is longer than one might think. The world of the utilities is in many ways far more complex than that of telecoms. In the latter sector, global standards and international cooperation have been a fact of life for around a century and a half and, while there are obviously slight variations in the use of technology from country to country, one size does tend to fit all cases.

39

PREPAID UTILITIES

There’s a debate between whether you apply intelligence to do things at the centre - or do things at the edge.

Rick Hanks, managing director, resources and smart meter lead for EMEA and Latin America, Accenture

Rich Hampshire, principal consultant, CGI

them has been an expensive overhead for the utilities. Political, legal and regulatory dimensions too are important here to ensure that vulnerable people aren’t left completely without power and that there’s the possibility to impose a load limiter as against total disconnection.

“That said, once the new generation of smart meters is installed, we see prepayment as creating and supporting new sectors of users – such as students whose accounts could be topped up remotely by their parents or, a few years down the line, those now-retired parents having their accounts topped up by their children, or their power use monitored to ensure they’re still active and well.”

Thick and thin technology options If that’s the human and social context, what are the technology options for deploying prepay services? Once again, just as in telecoms, there’s a debate between whether you apply intelligence to do things at the centre – or do things at the edge.

In utility speak, this respectively means the difference between ‘thin meters’ essentially acting as a dumb client, and ‘thick meters’ with their own processing capabilities and intelligence – and an implicitly huge difference in the various systems and infrastructure needed at the centre to monitor, manage, provision, bill and pay accounts.

While the EU has ESMIG (European Smart Meter Industry Group) to coordinate activities, the UK’s approach of using thick meters stands out almost uniquely. As Rich Hampshire, principal consultant and smart meter and grid guru at CGI, developers of the ‘Instant Energy’ platform currently used by seven energy suppliers in the UK, observed:

M2M Now Jargon Buster: IVR: Interactive Voice Response SMETS: Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specifications

40

“Lots of European countries are now looking at centralised control using thin meter concepts.

The UK has however taken the thick meter route because of how the concept of legal ‘duty of care’ to possibly vulnerable customers by the utilities has evolved in the country. One of the concerns around the thin meter approach is that the utility could erroneously disconnect the customer without any warning and issues like these are likely to be flagged up by consumer

groups in other countries as smart grids and thin smart meters are rolled out.”

One of the advantages of moving to a smart meter infrastructure is that, as long as you have the back and front office systems in place, then a much wider range of prepayment options plus additional services become possible. Critical within that framework is having sufficiently secure and robust protocols to handle the transfer of data and command signal. In the UK, this is represented by SMETS – now up to version 2 with longer crypto keys and better integration.

Neill Young, business development and marketing director at international smart grid and metering specialists, Trilliant, offered that: “It’ll be possible for prepay users to top up their central accounts over the internet, through call centres and IVR platforms and be able to check their balance and usage through smartphones as well.

Each country, even across Europe, has widely differing sets of responsibilities with some, such as EDF in France, having a complete monopoly.

While in the UK, each of the many energy retailers has responsibility for their meters.”

The bigger picture Irrespective of whatever model is adopted, once the smart grid/smart meter infrastructure is in place, basic prepayment principles can be readily expanded. Oliver Neuberger at smart metering infrastructure integrator, Glue Reply explained: “The homogenisation of household electricity meters offered by smart metering means that all meters will be capable of supporting a prepay arrangement.

“This will allow energy retailers to focus on providing a great user experience, enabling users to pay for their energy in ways that suit them, making intelligent use of online and mobile selfservice tools to allow this to be done at a minimal cost to the retailer, and without the historical costs associated with managing a prepay relationship.

“There are secondary benefits too – through being able to make short term pricing offers, retailers will be better able to influence the demand profile of consumers to reduce the likelihood of an energy crisis when demand significantly outstrips supply.”

September 2014

INTERVIEW

Baard Eilertsen, CEO, Maingate

What will make a utility smart?

Maingate Solutions was founded in 1998 as an M2M service provider (a mobile virtual network operator) offering machineto-machine communication services to enterprises and utilities in the Nordic region, while also serving industrial, domestic security and point of sale verticals. In 2008 it began to focus on how to handle the huge quantities of data produced. Maingate now supplies an information management platform, targeted at utilities. And it feels it understands the challenges involved in the digitisation of the industry. Here, Dr Therese Cory of Beecham Research talks to Maingate’s CEO, Baard Eilertsen about the future of smart utilities in the internet of things (IoT).

Baard Eilertsen: The question here is, how do we invest smartly in infrastructure in order to avoid making the massive investments needed to upgrade obsolete infrastructure, which would amount to billions of Euros?

The use of new technology by the utilities could minimise that investment in the legacy infrastructure, by creating a digital layer above that. This would collect critical information and create decision points, allowing it to see how the utility behaves and how it can improve its

September 2014

business. The larger utilities – in both Europe and the US – have got a grip on this and have embraced this concept to afford greater efficiency and transparency.

TC: What is the role of M2M in the smart utility?

M2M will play a smaller part in IoT developments compared with conventional M2M deployment, but will it be an essential enabler?

BE: For the first time, we can see M2M as a critical component in the business, enabling the vertical integration of energy production, grid, retail and microgeneration. This is all about

Dr Therese Cory, Beecham Research

▼

Dr Therese Cory: What comprises a smart utility?

Is this the same as digitising the energy market?

41

INTERVIEW

“IT will add a decentralised component, allowing more data to be collected from more data points.”

Baard Eilertsen, Maingate

TC: What part does cellular connectivity play in the smart utility?

BE: How you connect can be done in several ways, including power line communications, cellular, and WiFi. Cellular is going to be one of the components – but not the only component – that we will use. As of 2014, we know the limitations of all these technologies, and will utilise the best available technologies for the purpose, for example for the geographic area.

TC: How important are traditional SCADA systems versus new IT technology?

BE: I would not say SCADA versus IT. SCADA is oriented towards the engineering of operations; it is critical for maintaining a good grid status. The new uses of IT will complement existing SCADA operations. SCADA has a centralised orientation and is the primary mechanism for control, whereas IT will add a decentralised component, allowing more data to be collected from more data points in the operations and integrated.

TC: How should the industry create the right new partnerships in the utility ecosystem, especially given the entry of big new players such as Cisco, Microsoft, Google, and Schneider Electric – as well as software providers and integrators. And how important are standards and openness?

BE: I believe that there will be room in the new ecosystem for all of us players including Cisco, Google and Microsoft – but in different parts of it.

For example, I do not see Google being involved in grid solutions, but being more consumeroriented.

The digitisation of utilities will bring Google, Microsoft and Apple into the consumer part of the chain, but they will feed off the data from the grid. Other players are coming into the new

ecosystem including Schneider Electric, GE and the utilities themselves.

Maingate is working with the larger partners, including with Schneider in Scandinavia. Here it is important to understand how to manage this data in order to know how to improve grid and substation efficiency; also in partnership with Schneider, Maingate is working with the utility Vattenfall to understand the flow of the grid in real time, complementing their skills.

There is a growing need for the participation of new ecosystem members who will contribute, but who will benefit also. We are excited at the fact that the big players are coming in – and are learning. I feel they are humble and looking for the opportunity to fit into the supply chain.

There is much talk of standardisation but no one particularly wants to be a driver and make the decisions. I feel the industry as a whole will try to work out what will work in this new complex environment. As time goes on and new solutions present themselves, these will be brought in to complement existing standards.

TC: New business models are arising as new services make use of the large amounts of meter data that will be collected, offering charging options for consumers. This is where the fun starts, isn’t it?

BE: No utility looking into the future really knows how it will change, only that it will change. There will be engagement from new stakeholders – including consumers – and this will engender business models that are different to those today.

The utilities will become more transparent with their data – whilst not necessarily offering services themselves with this data, but cooperating with other companies to create new business ventures. The whole market will be more oriented towards consumers, businesses and also governments.

Already small consumer-driven initiatives of this kind are happening across Europe. These enable

▼

decentralised equipment and infrastructures.

M2M is important in how you collect, control and store data, and convert it to information to act upon.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH MAINGATE 42

September 2014

communities to create their own ventures based on the new info derived from grid data – controlling their own consumption and securing their supply and incorporating microgeneration. All this will happen quickly after the start of the digitisation we talked about earlier.

Coupled with this will come environmental awareness and responsibility in the production and use of energy.

In all, no-one has the answer yet but the whole industry is going to change dramatically. We cannot put a timeframe on this change, but it will be in line with the increased digitisation of the utilities, how the available data will be utilised by the different stakeholder groups to create services – they rather than the utilities themselves.

Google and Apple will utilise data from the utilities to create services themselves, and likely not turn around the service back to the utilities. We must also point out that regulation will play an essential role, and that this role must be respected.

TC: How has the utility landscape changed when going from the past to smart utilities? Is there an opportunity to open up adjunct markets, such home automation or buildings control?

“Digitisation of utilities will bring Google, Microsoft and Apple into the consumer part of the chain, but they will feed off data from the grid.”

Baard Eilertsen, Maingate

BE: The utility landscape is changing, due in part to the community-driven energy schemes described already.

These will involve thousands of private consumers and hundreds of enterprises which will create another element in the utility landscape.

▼

The new landscape will be more complex than in the past with new stakeholders and rapidly growing

September 2014

43

INTERVIEW

“Currently, the view is that the utilities are not up to speed.”

Baard Eilertsen, Maingate

demand for ‘near real-time’ information. This may or may not be good for the utilities, who must decide how they will face up to their changing future role.

It is interesting here to compare other industries where digitisation is happening; here new opportunities are being created on top of solid businesses, whilst elsewhere these have been ignored, resulting in failure. Currently, the view is that the utilities are not up to speed.

TC: What about the grid owners? Do their responsibilities range from large scale production plants to supporting microgrids while securing supply?

BE: The grid owners are not necessarily responsible for large scale production plants.

Most of the European grid structures are around 40 to 50 years old. In the past, adding more capacity meant adding more cables and copper; adding more capacity today using the old methods would be too costly.

At present the grid owners have very little control of the grid, nor understanding of how the energy flows and what is happening there. Some already understand that by ‘smartening’ the grid through digitising the infrastructure more data will be collected in real time.

SCADA = Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition

If the grid owners can utilise existing infrastructures and assets more cleverly, they can save the billions of Euros they would need to upgrade an obsolete grid which is becoming ever more expensive to maintain. The effect of this will be to lower the investment needed going forward, by being able to control energy flows, including the flow from microproduction sites (such as solar and wind). They will then know how much energy to take from the centralised production sites and how much from the microsites. They will be the winners from digitisation, safeguarding future supplies.

SIM = Subscriber Identity Module

All the grid companies in Europe and the US, and

M2M Now Jargon Buster: GSMA = Global System for Mobile communications Association

even globally, are looking into these possibilities.

TC: How will different European government interventions affect rollouts and development of the market, in view of the regulated versus non-regulated grid environments?

BE: Regulation will continue to be important – this is needed to ensure the environment is safeguarded, and supplies are secured. It is a human right to be connected to an energy supply.

The non-regulated environment will be expanded by additional technologies from the companies that interact with the grid, for example producers of solar power or community-based microgeneration. Here control will become a regulatory issue. All this generation will feed into one system which will be critical and will need safeguarding.

Hence future regulation will need to go hand in hand with current developments; we think that this will entail creating a new framework specifying how things should work, rather than creating new rules. It is in the common interest to have it working, while always respecting the grid.

TC: What do utilities need from the communications providers to avoid service provider lock-in?

BE: We see quality of service from communications service providers to be important, to ensure reliable transmission of data with minimal latency and so on.

However, the important issue here is embedded SIMs (eSIMs). Utilities do not want lock-in by a single mobile network operator for the 15 to 25 year lifetime of a smart meter, and would prefer the ability for customers to switch operators remotely. Whilst the GSMA is working on an embedded SIM standard, this is taking time to develop and its members have a vested interest in the status quo.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH MAINGATE 44

September 2014

An Orchestra Orchesstra off Utilities Utilitiees Extra this yyear! ear!

Dominated by utility presenters and R&D institutions, the Case Study Programme on the eexhibition xhibition floor offers a technical counter-balance to the Strategic Conference Programme.

Use promotional code MED1003 to claim your Visitor Pass, including access to the Case Study Programme. www.european-utility-w eek.com/register www.european-utility-week.com/register

4 - 6 No November vember 2014, Amster Amsterdam dam

SMART HOMES

Smart connected homes driving IoT

Dave Friedman, CEO and cofounder of Ayla Networks

Eva-Lotta Lundquist, global account manager, Telenor Connexion

The Internet of Things is set to create a market worth almost US$9 trillion by 2020. According to some analysts*, a large chunk of this business will be generated by smart connected homes. Antony Savvas reports on business developments in the smart home sector.

Analyst firm, IDC* has reported that market enablers - for the rise of IoT - include the ongoing development of smart cities, cars, and houses, as well as a growing culture of personal connectivity. Cloud-based home management systems, that allow users to remotely control household features like lighting and air conditioning, are also primed for rapid growth.

Further, another analyst firm, IHS Technology has stated that the global installed base for these services is projected to grow to 44.6 million at the end of 2018, up from 5.6 million at the end of 2013. As part of the growing IoT phenomenon, the installed base for such systems is expected to surge 63% to 9.1 million this year (2014).

Security, telecoms, and utility firms have already jumped into the cloud-based home management market, seeking to offer new services in addition to their established ones, in an attempt to reduce customer churn and increase the average revenue per user (ARPU). In Europe, the drive towards smart metering in the home for utility services has aided the market, with the likes of British Gas, Essent, Eneco, Nuon, RWE, EnBW, and Eon. “Imagine using your smartphone or tablet to detect an intruder in your home or to adjust the temperature in your living room, no matter where you are,” said Lisa Arrowsmith, associate director for connectivity, smart homes, and smart cities at IHS. “Cloud-based home management makes all this possible, and much more. With a wide range of companies offering such solutions, the cloudbased home management system business will expand dramatically in the coming years.”

Andy Stanford-Clark, master inventor at IBM UK

Antony Savvas, freelance technology writer

46

alongside UK start-ups, local authorities, and university departments to find the solution.

The HyperCat specification is a thin interoperability layer for the IoT, which allows applications to explore what data and resources are available on a specific data hub, or search for particular types of resources across the internet.

For example, if an application only understands temperature measurements, HyperCat provides a means to search for and discover only this type of data. This is helpful when data is buried amongst other information that the app in question may not understand.

The Technology Strategy Board created eight clusters to help develop HyperCat, which each created interoperability within their cluster - and then between clusters. Andy Stanford-Clark, master inventor at IBM UK, said: “We’ve been able to create whole new applications very quickly.

For instance, we can take illumination data from streetlights belonging to another project cluster and display it on our own application. Being able to explore the HyperCat metadata in human and machine-readable formats makes it easy to mash-up new applications.”

Market developments

Oiling the IoT

Another major development comes from Google's Nest Labs. Nest is a smart thermostat maker that Google bought this year, for US$3.2 billion, to help it carve a niche out of the smart connected home market. The company then created an industry group to encourage the makers of smart home devices to use a networking protocol. It’s called, ‘Thread’ and it enables devices to easily communicate with each other.

A consortium of more than 40 UK-based technology companies have recently agreed on a new and open IoT specification that can be used in, amongst others, the home sector. The HyperCat specification aims to allow machines to easily work together over the internet. It also enables applications to be able to discover - and make sense of - data without human intervention.

Certifying Thread-compatible products, the group includes: Samsung, ARM Holdings, Freescale Semiconductor, Silicon Labs, and lock-maker Yale. Earlier this year, Nest also partnered with Whirlpool, and light bulb maker, LIFX to integrate its products into thermostats and smoke detectors.

Over 12 months, and with the help of £6.4 million in funding from the UK's Technology Strategy Board, development teams from major companies including ARM, BT and IBM worked

Qualcomm and Intel have formed separate smart home technology alliances; Intel welcomed Samsung to its group, and Qualcomm’s group includes Microsoft and Sharp. Further, Cisco ▼

Lisa Arrowsmith, associate director for connectivity, smart homes, and smart cities, IHS

September 2014

The smart home standards and technology market is clearly becoming a crowded one

invested in Ayla Networks, another IoT player which recently signed an agreement with Yale rival, LockState, to bring intelligent door locks and other security systems to market.

"could dramatically change many aspects of our daily lives". It warned, however, that "there are big issues to be resolved before it becomes a reality."

LockState's WiFi-enabled ‘RemoteLock’, via Ayla's cloud platform, means that property owners can issue permanent or temporary pass codes to family members and guests without worrying about lock boxes, hiding keys, or illegal copying. A security camera, part of the RemoteLock platform, can also monitor and capture activity around the door.

Creating a home network is a complex project, says Intellect, and the cost of retrofitting a concealed wiring solution into existing homes "can be "prohibitive".

The smart home standards and technology market is clearly becoming a crowded one.

Obstacles Before any smart connected home technology can get a real market foothold, some obstacles need to be overcome, according to Intellect. The company feels that the connected home is "potentially the next big technology revolution" that

Enabling the smart connected home: What needs to be done • Industry and government should establish a connected home forum with representation from all industries with a stake in the connected home.

• Industry and government should work together to create an impartial online 'connected home portal' for consumers, aimed primarily at education and information dissemination.

At the Telenor Connexion test lab, all of a system's components are pushed to their limits: data load, speed, user numbers, hardware and software - the whole ecosystem. Both clients and their subcontractors are invited to the test lab where they can adjust and optimise their part of the system.

It’s been quite a journey in smart home developments to date.

Today, the customer now has more control over more functions via their mobile phones. But we’re not done yet.

“We'll see more changes in the next five years than we have in the last 50,” said Dan Hovang, CTO at Verisure.

• The connected home forum should create a reference network design standard and explore the potential for this to be submitted to standards bodies (such as the British Standards Institution in the UK).

• The connected home forum should initiate an ongoing discussion between the construction industry and technology industries to explore the impact of technology and networks on homes, including house prices and construction materials.

• A standardised certification programme and training package should be created for first level support of the connected home.

• Alternative funding approaches for networking new and existing homes should be explored, such as including the cost of implementing a home network as part of a mortgage/remortgage.

• Data protection bodies and other watchdogs should liaise with this connected home forum to ensure connected home data, privacy, and consumer protection issues are adequately addressed.

• A connected home standards watchdog should be created by the connected home forum to monitor standards and advise on potential interoperability issues across industry verticals.

September 2014

Source: Intellect

Dave Friedman, CEO and co-founder of Ayla Networks, said, “By developing and managing an infrastructure for connected devices, Ayla is able to free up companies like LockState to concentrate on creating great new products.”

Eva-Lotta Lundquist, global account manager at Telenor Connexion AB, said: “It's always cheaper to find out what data load your components can handle before you hit the market.”

47

INTERVIEW

Robert Brunbäck, chief marketing officer at Telenor Connexion

“The smart home sector requires collaboration between different players with different skills.”

48

September 2014

Sustainable and peaceful homes with Telenor Connexion The concept of the smart home or connected home – or domotics as it was called in the past – has been around for many years. Today, the smart home represents a strong opportunity for the M2M and IoT community, but also for more traditional industries working around products and services for the home. However, there is not much consensus on how the opportunity can be exploited, nor the challenges to be faced. Beecham Research’s, Saverio Romeo met with Robert Brunbäck, chief marketing officer at Telenor Connexion, to cut to the chase and find out what the future holds.

RB: For a long time, the concept of smart home has been driven by the technology community.

This community has explored and designed incredible ideas for home environments. However, the users of these ideas do not look at the beauty of technology and its complexity. They simply want to make the spaces in which they live more efficient, more pleasant, and easier to use. Smart home is not a technology-centric issue. Rather, it regards us and our lives in our homes. Therefore, home technologies have to be easy to use, sustainable, and cost effective.

M2M Now: What is Telenor Connexion’s offer around the smart home?

RB: Telenor Connexion comes from an M2M world. We offer global solutions for machine to machine connectivity. But, the industries we serve are increasingly looking for more integrated solutions that take into consideration connectivity, but also connectivity and device

management, data analytics, and the ability of developing applications. For this reason, we have launched Cloud Connect. Cloud Connect is an integrated solution, which includes a middleware platform, cloud-based data management, and an application enablement platform.

Cloud Connect was initially designed for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but also large corporations are adopting it. SMEs, also in the area of smart home, are adopting Cloud Connect because of the challenges with breaking into international markets. They need a global player like us able to ensure the global presence at every level of the M2M stack, from connectivity through to the applications.

M2M Now: What type of smart home vendors are your current customers?

RB: We have several projects in the area of the smart home such as: smart metering projects, security and surveillance systems, and energy data management systems. It is important to note that in some cases, our customers are ▼

M2M Now: How does Telenor Connexion interpret the smart home sector?

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELENOR CONNEXION September 2014

49

INTERVIEW

The smart home is about several types of products used in different conditions and in different ways by different people.

M2M Now Jargon Buster: API: Application Programming Interface GPRS: General Packet Radio Service

M2M Now: What emerging technologies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; wearable devices, short-range connectivity solutions, or others â&#x20AC;&#x201C; do you see impacting the smart home market in the future?

companies which are traditionally focused on the home. They are trusted brands that want to expand their portfolios by adopting innovative and connected solutions for the home.

Most probably, those companies are the ones that will drive the smart home market.

M2M Now: Can you share some examples?

RB: We have developed energy saving solutions for Regin for their smart buildings and for Exibea. Regin specialises in automation solutions for large buildings, but they are increasingly working around large blocks of apartments.

Exibea explores and designs sustainable solutions for home, particularly in terms of energy savings. We have also successfully worked with Verisure. Verisure develops home security and surveillance solutions such as video-based alarm systems. They wanted to expand into the home through new, connected products. We are also supporting Lyse Energi AS in its smart metering in deployment project in Norway.

M2M Now: Which are the main challenges facing the growth of the smart home market?

RB: Going beyond the current technology-led approach is the main challenge in front of us. Technologists cannot develop the smart home market on their own. The smart home is about several types of products used in different conditions and in different ways by different people. And this requires collaboration between different players with different skills.

The technology-led approach has also produced a number of silo solutions for home. There are several products on the market, but these remain isolated in the home. They produce data, but the data cannot be integrated with other data. For the end users, this fragmented approach does not facilitate the adoption of smart home solutions.

There are also ethical concerns, particularly around privacy, but I believe this can be faced through technology and regulation.

It is important to have secure smart home systems, but it is also important to establish rules and modes of using our data.

RB: Our homes are fantastic labs for a variety of technologies available today. In terms of connectivity, we will see the coexistence of short-range solutions and cellular technologies.

Probably, at the moment, there are too many short-range solutions (standards and proprietary). But, ensuring interoperability can reduce the turbulence.

Applications are another important, sometimes underestimated, issue for smart homes. Software is key in improving existing applications and developing new ones. But, in order to fully exploit the creative and innovative attitude of the software development community, the industry needs to give them open APIs, and Telenor Connexion is going in that direction with the Cloud Connect platform.

M2M Now: How else is Telenor Connexion collaborating to transform our homes into smart homes?

RB: The strong push for the smart home market will not come from the M2M and IoT community, but from strong collaborations between that community and companies that have a trusted brand and a history of household products.

The second set of companies is vast because our homes have very different assets. We will see companies such as home appliance manufacturers moving towards the smart home, as well as interior designers, furniture designers, and home furniture producers. Telenor Connexion is collaborating closely with these kinds of companies because we strongly believe that cross-sector collaboration is the way forwards for the smart home sector.

M2M Now: How will Telenor Connexion contribute to the 2020 vision of the smart home?

RB: In 2020, we want to live in sustainable homes that make our moments peaceful and relaxing. We are working towards that knowing that the technologies are available. However, we cannot achieve this on our own. We want to collaborate with known brands in the home product market because we, as household owners, trust them, their products, and their histories.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELENOR CONNEXION 50

September 2014

Reliability is vital for a system like this. Customers cannot see their homes go cold or dark or not be able to unlock their front door because of a communications failure

Espen Schiager, communications manager, Lyse Energi AS

“Customers cannot see their homes go cold, or dark, or not be able to unlock their front door because of a communications failure.”

Smart metering is an important topic in Europe today. By 2020, 74% of European households need to have a smart meter installed. M2M Now met with Espen Schiager, communications manager at Lyse Energi AS, to understand more about the status of smart metering deployment in Norway, and the collaboration between Telenor Connexion and Lyse Energi AS. M2M Now: Can you tell us about Lyse Energi AS? ES: Lyse is a Norwegian industrial group operating within the fields of energy and fibre-based broadband. It is owned by 16 municipalities in Sør-Rogaland and began operations on 1 January 1999. Interestingly, its roots extend more than 100 years back in time. In fact, forward-looking thoughts led to the acquisition of waterfall rights way back then, as well as the construction of a hydroelectric power plant and the network of lines that have benefited an entire region.

The Lyse Group has developed into a substantial national operator within renewable energy. With experience from building and operating infrastructure, the Group has established itself as the national leader within fibre-optic broadband.

In recent years, Lyse has developed a gas network in Sør-Rogaland and operates an LNG business in a Nordic market.

M2M Now: On which project, are Lyse Energi AS and Telenor Connexion working together?

ES: The next chapter in Lyse’s history starts now with smart homes and welfare technology. And this is where we are working together with Telenor Connexion. By law, we have to install an automatic meter in all of our region's 150,000

homes by 1 January 2019. At the same time, we also install a small, but powerful, gateway free of charge for the customer. This will communicate automatic meter readings to Lyse, as well as prepare the home for a wealth of smart home services. Through an app you can control lights, heating, door lock, sun screens, burglar and fire alarms, and so on. The list doesn’t stop because the gateway is prepared for all standards and technological platforms. Telenor Connexion delivers the mobile communication in the gateway.

M2M Now: Why did you choose Telenor Connexion as a partner?

ES: Reliability is vital for a system like this.

Customers cannot see their homes go cold or dark or not be able to unlock their front door because of a communications failure. Also, the meter readings must always be sent at the programmed times. So the main communications carrier will be the customer's broadband connection. But in case this breaks down, or in case a location doesn’t have broadband, the system must automatically switch over to mobile communications (GPRS). Telenor has long and extensive experience as the main mobile communications provider here in Norway.

Reliability is the key reason that we chose to work with Telenor Connexion.

Telenor Connexion designs and operates connected business solutions for a variety of sectors from automotive to consumer electronics passing from healthcare, logistics, utilities, and smart homes.

September 2014

51

REGIONAL REPORT

The author, Jeremy Green, is principal analyst at Machina Research

Scandinavia review If you were to set out to design a geographical region that was optimised for the development of M2M services, it would probably look a lot like Scandinavia, according to Jeremy Green.

Emil Berthelsen, principal analyst, Machina Research

Economically advanced, with high GDP per capita, Scandinavia is technologically sophisticated with high internet penetration, and excellent mobile and broadband coverage. It has an educated and skilled workforce, commensurately high labour costs, and a business culture that is supportive of entrepreneurship and start-ups. So, it should be no surprise that the region contains some of the leading global players in M2M and also some exemplary local deployments.

However, that’s not the whole story.

According to the specialist M2M analyst house, Machina Research, the M2M market in Scandinavia (comprising Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) had close to 55 million connected devices in 2013. This is expected to grow to 263 million devices by 2023, close to a fivefold increase over the period. That translates, in financial terms, to €12.9 billion for devices, installation and service in M2M, again for 2023.

Machina has highlighted intelligent buildings and consumer electronics, followed by utilities (inclusive of electric vehicle charging stations) and automotive, then healthcare, smart cities, and public transport as the most important sectors.

A tentative start Staffan Eriksson, head of product management, Maingate

52

There are strong, innovative companies at all levels of the value chain, including mobile network operators, specialist M2M MVNOs and

service providers, software platform providers, M2M enablers and communities, as well as a vigorous Internet of Things (IoT) layer.

Scandinavia's mobile network operators, notably Telenor and TeliaSonera, were early pioneers in M2M. As a result of their early starts they learned some hard lessons about the M2M value chain, and have emerged stronger as a result.

According to Robert Brunbäck, CMO at Telenor Connexion (the operator group's main M2M subsidiary): “Being first is costly, partly because you need to make mistakes on the way and partly because prices for hardware, development, connectivity etc. have been relatively high in the early days. The market has been too silo oriented and the complexity has been to get hardware, connectivity, software and digital services to work together. We are trying to

▼

Robert Brunbäck, CMO at Telenor Connexion

September 2014

push the market by having a more holistic approach and taking end-to-end responsibility for those customers that want to minimise risk and investment.”

TeliaSonera also places emphasis on its role in packaging and delivering end-to-end solutions, even though most of these are heavily dependent on partner-supplied components. Many of the use cases it cites are about business process optimisation, including digital signage, connected vending machines, monitoring of forest machinery, and waste management. The privately-held Swedish company, Info24 and its software platform tingo, has a salient role in several of the propositions. But there are also some intriguing ideas for new consumer-facing services, of which my personal favourite is the digitally enhanced playground developed in conjunction with Kompan (a supplier of outdoor equipment) and Swedish embedded IT specialist, Prevas.

Service providers Scandinavia is also home to independent service providers, of which one of the best known is Maingate. This company provides both connectivity as an MVNO and a platform for device and service management. Maingate's head of product management, Staffan Eriksson, perhaps unsurprisingly argues that: “...the power position of the MNOs in the M2M value chain is becoming a hindering factor when they apply the strategies they have used in the mobile sector. These strategies will end up leaving the customers locked in to the technology provided by the chosen actor. This will give the customers a great disadvantage as it inhibits the flexibility needed to find suitable solutions to new challenges or to address emerging opportunities.

“The vendor lock-in that comes with their control over the connectivity part of the solutions may prevent the market realising the potential of M2M. We already see a number of customers searching for solutions that will prevent them from being vendor locked-in and give them the freedom to change supplier without having to replace their SIM fleet.”

Intrapreneurial developments An important role in co-ordinating development activities is played by Swedish M2M Service Enablers (SMSE), best described as an umbrella organisation, which brings together both large and small companies involved in M2M. It receives sponsorship from major telecoms operators like Telenor, Tele2 and TeliaSonera, and hardware and software vendors including Ericsson, Cisco and Microsoft. Its 28 members resemble a roll-call of Sweden's innovative IoT start-ups, such as Watty, Yanzi Networks and imagimob. The founder, of SMSE, Magnus Melander, also runs a consulting company, Wbird, dedicated to “helping decision makers across industries figure out how IoT solutions can provide value to their business. We are also working with entrepreneurs targeting the IoT opportunity [and] educating the market, positioning Sweden as a good place to look for skills and solutions.”

Although Scandinavia's IoT sector is mainly composed of small start-up companies there are also some 'intrapreneurial' activities within larger companies. It's hard not to like some of the adventurous proof-of-concept work done in Ericsson's consumer lab. Of course, Ericsson's involvement in M2M is not limited to cute demonstrations. The company is one of relatively few providers of “3rd party provisioning platform software as a service.” Its device connection platform, which it bought from Telenor in 2011, is making inroads into the operators market that has hitherto belonged, almost exclusively, to US company Jasper Wireless.

Long traditions in Scandinavia But while it is obvious, and right, to focus on the supply side

September 2014

for M2M solutions, a major contributor to the development of the market has been the leading role taken by user organisations' own IT departments. According to Emil Berthelsen, a principal analyst at Machina Research: “Optimising and improving business processes through connected devices and applications has had a long tradition in Scandinavia. So in many situations, M2M and Internet of Things have continued to be addressed by IT departments. In other developed markets, the benefits of M2M and IoT have been driven by production or marketing departments.”

This has made for some powerful use cases. Berthelsen singles out for special mention Danish company DONG Energy's Power Hub, intended to be part of a centralised management system for smart grid solutions which create balance between electricity generation and consumption. This makes it easier to use renewables within the power grid.

Berthelsen similarly cites Swedish utility company Vattenfall as an example of a new customer-facing service, in this case energy monitoring for both residential and corporate customers, enabled by M2M. Both companies, he says, are “leveraging a host of M2M concepts to profoundly change the energy market”.

But while being among the first movers in a new sector can deliver 'early bird' advantages, there is also the risk of 'first mouse' disadvantages. According to Maingate: “In some cases, the first movers in smart metering in Sweden miscalculated their business case and basically went bankrupt due to a really bad business model.

“The costs were higher and the revenues lower than they had expected. It is one of the drawbacks with the large volume infrastructure deals, the customer (utilities) pressures the supplier to an extent that no company is willing to deliver, or can live up to, the tough requirements regarding pricing, SLAs, service availability, or manage the risks and liabilities,” said Eriksson.

Now and next He also argues that the enthusiastic involvement of the telcos, which has created a strong legacy of M2M solutions oriented towards business process optimisation, has meant that Scandinavia is somewhat behind in terms of IoT solutions.

“We are weaker than US companies regarding the end-user focus, understanding and addressing the needs of the user.

Much of the Scandinavian M2M heritage comes from the telco side, and here we see that primarily the US is complementing the M2M business with its IT and internet technologies. This is something that is now starting to grow in Scandinavia as well, but there is still a distance to go to catch up with the USbased companies.”

Telenor's Brunbäck is also upbeat about the prospects of IoT in Scandinavia: “We are starting to see quite a few promising IoT initiatives in Scandinavia as well. The national Scandinavian market/consumer is very keen to try out new, innovative consumer goods/services. For the coming years we will see rapid development as size of sensors and components decrease, battery capacities are improved and cost of hardware goes downhill. Things that we cannot today imagine will be connected and we will have sensors in anything from food packaging, to clothes, toys, and pets.

“As more things, people, and processes are getting connected, the value will increase exponentially if data is captured, managed and visualised in the right way. I think our strong Scandinavian tradition of user-centered development and service design will be critical in using technology in a sensible, valuable and sustainable manner.”

53

AUTOMOTIVE M2M

LTE for automotive applications The 4G-enabled car is the next hot ‘consumer device’ LTE possesses the speed, low latency and IP-connectivity (voice, video and data are all transmitted over IP), to enable a whole new generation of high-quality invehicle applications supporting attractive video-rich communication, navigation, information, entertainment and location-based services for driver and passengers.

The speed and guaranteed quality of service of LTE as compared to previous generation cellular standards improves vehicle instrumentation systems dramatically; not only in the types and sophistication of services available, but also the quality of the services.

purposes completely replace fixed-line connections (“the end of wireline”).

Looking at the state of commercially deployed connectivity today, we already see speeds in the range of 1-10 Gbps for office Ethernet, 100 Mbps 1 Gbps for residential cable services, 300 - 600 Mbps for Wi-Fi (802.11a,b,g,n) and 1 Gbps for Wi-Fi (802.11ac).

On the cellular side, we already have LTE at 150 Mbps (cat. 4). With “LTE-Advanced” being deployed over the next few years, we will see this speed going up to a peak of 500 Mbps uplink and 1 Gbps downlink.

Fig. 1: LTE is enabling a new generation of highspeed video-rich in-vehicle applications and services

For the automobile industry where profit margins on vehicles are low - typically much less than 10% of the retail price of the car. LTE provides a clear and compelling way for automakers to add new services and revenue models to their new LTEequipped models.

Bandwidth evolution “Edholm’s law of bandwidth” states that connectivity speeds in wide area wireless (“cellular”, e.g. LTE, UMTS), short range wireless (“nomadic” such as Wi-Fi) and fixed-line (“wireline”, e.g. copper) networks are on a converging trajectory.

The author is Charles Sturman, product manager LTE chips, u-blox

The law claims that the lines will converge at a point in the near future where the speed of cellular communications will be equivalent to short range communications, and for all practical

Fig. 2: LTE is significantly closing the gap on both wired and local area wireless technology. Edholm’s Law of Bandwidth, Steve Cherry - IEEE Spectrum, July 2004

Cellular Technology

Download (max)

Upload (max)

Guaranteed Quality of service (latency)

Supports single HDTV channel

Supports multiple HDTV channels

ADSL/Cable comparable internet

LTE-A (rel. 10)

1 Gb/s

500 Mb/s

Guaranteed

Yes

Yes

Yes

LTE-A (cat. 6)

300 Mb/s

100 Mb/s

Guaranteed

Yes

Yes

Yes

LTE (cat. 4)

150 Mb/s

50 Mb/s

Guaranteed

Yes

Yes

Yes

UMTS/HSPA+

42 Mb/s

11.5 Mb/s

No, best-effort

Yes

No

No

UMTS/HSPA

7.2 Mb/s

5.76 Mb/s

No, best-effort

No

No

No

CDMA2000 1xRTT

153 Kb/s

153 Kb/s

No, best-effort

No

No

No

CDMA2000 EVDO

3.1 MB/s

1.8 MB/s

No, best-effort

No

No

No

EDGE

384 Kb/s

384 Kb/s

No, best-effort

No

No

No

GSM/GPRS

171 Kb/s

171 Kb/s

No, best-effort

No

No

No

Fig. 3: LTE bandwidth compared with previous cellular generations

54

September 2014

By comparison, the bandwidth required to stream a single 1080p HD movie is “only” 10 - 20 Mbps. With support for multiple streaming HD video channels, currently the internet’s highest bandwidth user, virtually any service is available over the internet today via LTE!

New vehicle applications enabled by LTE Let’s now consider some real examples of the new applications that LTE will make possible over the next few years.

Infotainment / mobile hotspot In March 2014, Audi announced that the 2015 model Audi A3 will come equipped with 4G LTE. The Audi Connect 4G service provides Google Earth (Figure 4) and Street View maps for navigation and supports Google search queries and Internet / social media browsing via speech recognition and audio read out.

Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (E-MBMS) provides a low-latency, spectrum efficient way for the same content to be received by all users (broadcast) or a selected number of subscribers on the LTE network. It does this by implementing point-to-multipoint transmission (multicast) where a single live video stream is transmitted through the network core, multiplied and distributed to viewers or subscribers as required at the edge of the network.

Augmented Reality and Head-Up-Displays Increasingly, status and safety information is being presented to the driver as an overlay on his forward view via the windscreen, similar to aircraft instrumentation. The ability to view information such as speed, navigation and vehicle proximity without having to look away contributes to a safer and more efficient driving experience.

Fig. 6: In-car Augmented Reality

Fig. 4: Google Earth based navigation streamed over 4G LTE in the 2015 Audi A3

In addition, online music / video streaming, collision assistance and an integral 4G / Wi-Fi router supporting up to eight other passenger devices turns this car into a mobile internet hotspot!

Interactive TV and movies The enhanced performance of 4G LTE networks enables HD movie streaming without buffering or waiting, as well as support for multiple simultaneous users (everyone gets to watch their own on-demand movie!).

Many cars, especially premium models, now offer TV screens for passenger use on long journeys, and also for driver use when the vehicle is stationary. It is easy to see how adoption of in-car TV might mirror the evolution of in-car audio – albeit more rapidly – from FM radio in the 1960s to the currently popular on-demand music streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify.

Live events and broadcast content Certain premium events such as the World Cup or Superbowl attract hundreds of millions of simultaneous viewers. To handle such high-demand live content, LTE's Enhanced

LTE takes this development to a new level by leveraging the information content and power of the internet. For example, upcoming traffic hazards may be monitored by cameras and road-sensors in real-time, and then combined with data from surrounding vehicles. The ‘fused’ data is processed in the cloud and then relayed to all cars. Thanks to the low transmission latency of LTE, this is possible in real time with respect to the relative velocities of surrounding vehicles.

Other aiding information may also be displayed such as proximity (and price) of fuel stations, services, parking or bridge toll options and real time updates overlaid on the road ahead as illustrated in Figure 6.

u-blox’ approach to in-car LTE u-blox has developed a range of automotive grade cellular modules and satellite positioning components that provide plug-and-play compatibility and a range of options from 2G to 3G to 4G LTE multimode (which includes both 2G and 3G HSPA+). In addition, these modules are available in AEC-Q100 automotive qualified solder-down form for stringent requirements of the automotive industry.

The LTE multimode modules TOBY-L200 and TOBY-L210 are available to cover the radio spectrums deployed in America and Europe respectively, offering performance at LTE Release 9, Cat. 4 (150Mbps downlink / 50Mbps uplink). The devices support both circuit switched speech and Voice over LTE together with fall-back for both data and voice traffic to 2G / 3G. This enables support for all potential system architectures from fully integrated to functionally independent, as discussed above.

For more information about ublox’ LTE modem modules for automotive applications, visit www.u-blox.com/lte.html Fig. 7: u-blox TOBY-L200 Automotive grade LTE Multimode module

Fig. 5: Verizon LTE Multicast Superbowl 2014 Demonstration

IN ASSOCIATION WITH U-BLOX

55

INTERVIEW

Emmanuel Maçon-Dauxerre is senior vicepresident of sales for EMEA at Telit. A 20-year veteran of the telecoms industry after starting in Singapore as a product engineer for Thomson VCR, he has worked at companies including Bosch Telecom, Motorola, EXFO and more recently Wavecom/Sierra Wireless where he managed the key account team for EMEA as well as Sales for Southern Europe. He joined Telit in January 2012 to lead the Global Energy segment before moving to his current position in March 2014.

Connectivity creates an innovation environment for utilities and their customers According to Telit’s Emmanuel Maçon-Dauxerre, the global utilities market is fragmented and composed of companies that have different heritages and serve different types of end user demand. He tells George Malim that communications technology has the potential to revolutionise metering for the first time in more than a century to the benefit of utilities in terms of increased efficiency and to benefit consumers in controlling usage and spend

Emmanuel Maçon-Dauxerre: In so far as it is possible to generalise in global terms, the main trend is the change of technology. Electricity meters were a revolution at the beginning of the last century but since then there has been no

September 2014

significant change. Now, we speak of smart metering and smart grids – everything is smart something. However, I don’t think this is necessarily smart, it’s more accurately connected.

It is the connectivity that creates an environment for innovation when it comes to meters. The possibility of connecting an iPad to

▼

M2M Now: What are the major trends that you see in the utility market today?

57

INTERVIEW

a smart meter, for example, opens up a range of efficiency applications and ways for the consumer to manage their usage that traditional metering simply couldn’t offer.

I think we’re at the stage of market development where it is difficult to predict what might happen. Only when the capability is there in terms of enabled meters deployed will we see applications be developed. However, obvious and likely examples include the ability for consumers to manage their consumption and power down their homes remotely.

Meters are still ultimately only tools to measure what you consume but that measurement becomes a tool for users to interact with and modify their behaviour and I think that is the key trend.

A connected meter allows you to know your consumption without waiting for your next bill and enables users not to have to pay in advance for their usage. Of course, that’s where the benefit to the utility companies comes in. There’s less meter reading required because it is automated and that’s particularly useful in countries that have seasonal differences, such as Europe. It’s less pronounced in the US where winter heating consumption turns to summer cooling consumption.

M2M Now: What’s driving the move to connected metering?

▼

EM-D: More accurate billing without having to read the meter and pay the costs associated with that was the original intent and we have

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELIT 58

September 2014

I think the prepaid market started in South Africa and other developing markets because prepaid is a good way to move non-electricity users to electricity

Now though, communications technology advances have made that bi-directional and utility companies can not only take information from meters but also send it to them. They can command them to switch off or on or to change tariff, for example.

The second wave of the trend is to have remote interaction between the meter, the utility company and the consumer to facilitate minimised consumption. Energy is becoming a scarce resource and is being used more and more to power autonomous devices. Uses such as charging electric vehicles place a substantial load on the power grid. If everyone charges their cars at once, substantial investment in the power grid may be required so encouraging users to consume more intelligently is to the benefit of the power companies as well.

That will be served by apps on smartphones and tablets and a lot of new features are coming.

M2M Now: Given that national approaches to power distribution differ widely, can the utility market be served on a global basis?

EM-D: It’s very difficult to define a global trend in this market because nothing is global. In the US, for example, the voltage is different while the UK has different power sockets to European countries. Add to that the many people in the world who have access to no or only limited

September 2014

electricity and it’s clear this is not a one-sizefits-all sector and specific systems are needed for individual markets.

M2M Now: To what extent do you see smart metering enhancing utilities’ prepaid propositions? Where is prepaid well established, and where is it just beginning to gain traction?

EM-D: I think the prepaid market started in South Africa and other developing markets because prepaid is a good way to move nonelectricity users to electricity. It removes the credit concerns of utilities and enables new users to control their spending. Other markets, such as the UK, have a base of prepaid users for historical reasons that may be related to high turnover of rental property tenants.

Current solutions are not elegant and require users to charge up prepaid keys or cards with cash. The administration costs are substantial and passed on to the user.

In addition, with a smart meter, the utility can easily connect and disconnect customers. For me, prepaid should be an additional offering and it offers a strong benefit for utilities because they get paid in advance.

What has changed a lot is the traditional landscape in which a utility made everything from power generation to distribution and billing. The provider now, may only do the last of these things.

M2M Now: What are the obstacles to and drivers for adoption of smart metering?

▼

seen utility companies deploy technologies to address this since the 1980s. In the US, for example, radio frequency technology was deployed to enable power companies to perform drive-by meter reading.

59

INTERVIEW

We work closely with providers to ensure the technology is right and all utilities engage in extensive pilot projects to try to achieve the right technology selection

Emmanuel Maçon-Dauxerre is senior vice president of sales for EMEA at Telit

EM-D: In general the large legacy infrastructure of meters presents a barrier to utilities. It is a big roll-out covering tens of millions of homes and that may be easier in markets where there are only one or two providers. Where there are more and there is no government involvement, deployment certainly moves more slowly.

Remember electromechanical meters can have a lifespan of 10, 20 or even more years so this is not a fast moving sector.

Of course, communications technology moves much more quickly and there are concerns among utilities about ensuring they choose the right technology. That is a difficult process because of the lifespan of the meters. In Australia, for example, the state of Victoria started to deploy WiMAX meters because it was the best technology available at the time but now it is not.

The pace of technology evolution is very fast and makes the decision for utilities quite hard. In the Netherlands, two of the largest utilities have chosen CDMA 450 because the cell is bigger.

A key barrier is the cost of replacing meters. It does depend upon how the utility approaches deployment but the logistical part is typically more than 50% of the total cost of the project.

Managing the cost of installation and implementation is therefore particularly important. The fragmentation among power providers means that some will want to do this themselves, perhaps using powerline communications, while others will turn to mobile network operators to provide the service to them.

Every country is and will be different because of their historical approaches to metering.

www.telit.com

M2M Now: How does Telit approach this market?

EM-D: We understand that this market is heterogeneous so we have developed a range of modular solutions that utilities can use to address all or some of their needs. For instance, we have a short range module and a GNSS module and have modules to address specific needs such as in Brazil where GPS is required for meters. That needs to be very accurate to support the smart grid concept.

We understand that you need to be able to offer as much as possible and therefore offer communications modules including EVDO, CDMA, 2G, 3G and 4G and for ZigBee and other dedicated proprietary networks.

There is always additional communications technology coming in so Telit stays close to and follows developments to help partners put each technology into their designs. We also try to have the same form factor for all technologies so when a customer installs 2G and wireless mbus or ZigBee and 3G they can be in the same PCB and provided by populating that with a different module.

We work closely with providers to ensure the technology is right and all utilities engage in extensive pilot projects to try to achieve the right technology selection.

Recently we have introduced our ONE STOP. ONE SHOP proposition where services are added on top of hardware. You can find everything you want at Telit. All you need to do is add your particular expertise. In this market, that’s where the meter functionality is added. We want our customers to do that because they’re the experts in their verticals.

We’ll then do all of the rest if they want, using the building blocks that we offer. You can take everything in the Telit portfolio or just what you need.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELIT 60

September 2014

1 EXPO

10 SUMMITS 21 & 22 April 2015 Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre

170 EXHIBITORS 5000 ATTENDEES kþÏĜ±Ĭ )ƴåĹƋ {±ųƋĹåų

CONNECT represents the innovative companies and technologies of today ƋʱƋ ±ųå ÚåĀĹĜĹč ƋĘå

Why are wearable tech and driverless cars the future?

Find out from the inventor of Google Glass Sebastian Thun Founder of Udacity Fellow Researcher at Google Founder of Google X Labs

Hear from the leading digital visionary that can see the future coming Don Tapscott Author, speaker and advisor on Media Technology and innovation

BOOK KA AS S A DELEGA DELEGATE ATE T

BOOK OOK K A TRADE TRADE BOO TH BOOTH

bef before ore 1st December ecemberr &

before bef ore 19th Septemberr &

SAVE S AVE V up to to $200

SAVE S AV VE up tto o 15%

visit www.con-nect.com.au www.con-nect.com.au

calll +61 2 8908 8555

THE N NEXT EXT BIG THING SUMMIT

CONNECTED GOVERNMENT SUMMIT

INTERNET OF THINGS SUMMIT

CONNECTED MARKETING SUMMIT

CLOUD & BIG DATA SUMMIT

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY SUMMIT

FUTURE HEALTH SUMMIT

CONNECTED LEARNING D Down own Under

SUMMIT

UAV/DRONES SUMMIT

OPINION

SPONSORED COLUMN

Does your boardroom function as a glass cockpit?

The Glass Cockpit allows pilots to view data and conditions from hundreds of systems and thousands of sensors all at once.

The author is Alexander Bufalino, the chief marketing officer of Telit Wireless Solutions

In boardrooms around the world, things are changing thanks to the Internet of Things. With instant access to business assets and systems, executive management is now in a position to make better decisions, based on better information than ever before. So how did we get here?

Enter cellular telephony. With modules that could be embedded into all sorts of machines, M2M extended the reach of business processes outside four walls.

Today, cloud technology enables machines, sensors, and other devices to upload and store vast amounts of raw data.

There was a time, not so long ago, when management had to wait on a fairly manual reporting process and base business decisions on information that may have taken months to reach their desks. As business computing moved from the old mainframes of the 1960s to networked PCs, information started moving faster and performance metrics changed. Unfortunately, the information driving those decisions remained restricted primarily to things which could be measured within the company’s four walls.

As a result, just as pilots in a glass-cockpit can access information from hundreds of sensors and systems in a single display, so too can executives in the modern boardroom leverage big data to glean performance metrics as they happen.

Telit has been at the vanguard of this reinvention of the boardroom. Our offerings are designed to simplify the connection of “things” to the Internet of Things and, as a result, add value in this business process revolution.

M2M Summit 2014: Smart utilities need real-time data Smart utilities might be small in size, but their impact can be massive. As part of an entire energy ecosystem, for example in the areas of the smart home and the smart city, smart utilities are a crucial element in ensuring that energy is available to end users and companies as efficiently, conveniently, and affordably as possible. To achieve this, data about the usage and the consumer should ideally be accessed and used instantly; in other words, in real time.

The author is Joachim Dressler, M2M Alliance

62

Whilst this data needs to be accessible quickly, it entirely depends on the circumstances, i.e. which bandwidth and which technologies are required to transport and analyse the data.

every technology has its advantages and disadvantages. Cable-based solutions provide more bandwidth whilst wireless transmissions are usually easier to set up and cheaper to install.

Smart meters in smart homes are currently a huge topic widely discussed by experts and end users alike. But they are by no means the only aspect of smart utilities. The range of challenges and solutions spans modern facility management in companies, as well as government bodies or councils that look into street lighting or terminals for e-cars. In every area and industry, different demands mean different challenges and different solutions.

Wireless, fixed line, PLC (power line communications):

Communication is needed to overcome the challenges which lie ahead of us. There are many elements that must be considered, and finally linked, before smart utilities help to create the perfect solution for the specific needs of users and providers. That’s why we encourage our members, as well as everyone else who is interested in the latest developments, to get in touch with each other. The M2M Summit in Düsseldorf (20th/21st October) offers a great opportunity to do so.

September 2014

Organized by:

Focused conference and exhibition for the commercial telematics and fleet management industry.

SAVE $200

When you register by September 26, 2014. Unique discount code inside. www.telematicsupdate.com/fleet

12th Annual

Connected Fleets USA 2014 November 20 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21, Westin Buckhead, Atlanta, USA

Integrate Telematics with Supply Chain, Enterprise & Transport Infrastructure as Fleets Fuse with the Connected World ` ENTERPRISE & TELEMATICS CONVERGE: Integrate vehicle & telematics data with the wider connected ecosystem e.g. enterprise resource planning, work order management and maintenance bays to map opportunities where connectivity can ease bottlenecks in the supply chain

EXPERT SPEAKERS INCLUDE: FLEET MANAGERS:

` COMPLETE THE LEASING PUZZLE: Overcome the complexities of fleet leasing by integrating back end analytics from embedded and aftermarket solutions for a seamless approach for improved driver performance & vehicle life cycle to engage all fleets from government to, small local and large long haul fleets ` THE LAW OF CONNECTIVITY: Review current and potential proposals for data logging and V2V communication to assess legal opportunities and challenges for automated and connected vehicle technologies including liability, litigation and privacy to anticipate potential roadblocks ` THE INVESTMENT DRIVE: Investigate the motivation and strategies of private equity, industry players, and government investment e.g. improving congestion and road safety or to widen service portfolios and enter new markets to position solutions for investment

OEMs:

KEY INDUSTRY SPEAKERS:

` SMARTER SERVICES THROUGH DATA SHARING & ANALYTICS: Crack open the OEM platform to create a sandbox of data that combines vehicle, driver and environmental data to offer a more precise service portfolio ` CONNECTIVITY IS THE FUTURE OF TRANSPORTATION: Explore case studies and the roadmap for autonomous vehicles and V2V/V2I (vehicle-tovehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure) technology that can be leveraged to improve transport infrastructure, mobility, goods movement and satisfy fleet manager needs

FACT

GOLD SPONSORS:

LANYARD SPONSOR:

300+ Executive Delegates 30+ Expert Speakers 20 Business-Focused Sessions

COFFEE BREAK SPONSOR:

20+ Hours of Supreme Networking In-depth Industry Case Studies and Dynamic Panel Discussions

Visit the website today for the latest updates on top speakers, sessions and the full conference program! www.telematicsupdate.com/fleet

BACK PAGE

Hindsight, a ‘thing’ of the past?

How we’re realising the breadth of M2M possibilities “You did back up your computer, right?” Is this so far removed from, “You did have a tracking device enabled, didn’t you?” As the realisation hits that we can virtually track anything, M2M Now’s Georgina Elrington asks: Are we entering a time when it’s going to be laughable not to do so?

Recently, someone whose bicycle was stolen posted a polite notice on Facebook requesting that the thief return it. Hopefully, the fact that he mentioned: “I know where you live,” because the bike in question had a tracker, reunited it with its owner swiftly – and without police intervention.

The author is deputy editor, Georgina Elrington

So, should you discover your car, caravan or even your motorbike isn’t where you left it, perhaps SPOT Trace™ from Globalstar Europe Satellite Services can help (next time). This is anti-theft protection for, well, anything you like really. A GPS satellite-based tracking device immediately notifies owners, via text or email, when movement of a ‘thing’ is detected. You can then track the item on Google Maps™.

This kind of tracking isn’t reserved just for personal effects. The Norwegian government has part-funded an initiative to track farmers’ livestock so they can understand what is driving the disappearance of livestock and eliminate any foul play. The funding enabled Findmysheep AS, a Globalstar Value Added

64

Reseller, to develop a tracking collar, with a backoffice application that enables the farmer to visualise the whereabouts of the animals at any given time. It has already activated 12,000 M2M collars, mainly on sheep and cattle in Norway, and trials are underway to monitor cattle in Brazil, and endangered species in North Africa.

And this year, you might even be able to track these items on your wrist. Independent research company, Smartwatch Group, based in Switzerland of course – the home of watches, has completed an in-depth analysis what will be the 20 most relevant application areas for smartwatches in 2020. These range from personal assistance (your watch will automatically detect if you are mugged, and trigger the necessary actions) to military operations (just what you need when you can’t find your car keys).

The group predicts that, in 2020, 1.6 billion such watches will to be sold, 800 million of which will be connected to the internet. Compared to 1.2 billion sold in 2013, this is an annual growth rate of 4%.

September 2014

Berg Insight will have three analysts present at

Super Mobility Week LAS VEGAS / SEPTEMBER 9-11

Rickard Andersson

Johan Fagerberg

Johan an Sva Svanberg

Senior M2M/IoT Analyst

Senior M2M/IoT Analyst

Senior or M2M/IoT M2M Analyst

Contact us for more information abo about our M2M research series or to arrange a mee meeting. info@berginsight.com | Phone +46 31 711 30 91

Berg Insight - 10 years of leading M2M/IoT market resea research arch Based in Sweden, we have been specialising in all major M2M/IoT verticals such as fleet management, car telematics, smart metering, smart homes, mHealth and industrial M2M since 2004. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers. Berg Insight can offer numerous market reports, detailed market forecast databases and advisory services.

We provide custom research tailored to your requirements including focused research papers, business case analysis, go-to-market strategies and bespoke market forecasting.

Our clients include many of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest mobile operators, vehicle OEMs, fleet management solution providers, wireless device vendors, content providers, investment firms and venture capitalists, IT companies, technology start-ups and specialist consultants. To date we have provided analytical services to 700 clients in 69 countries on six continents.

Berg Insight, Viktoriagatan 3, 411 25 Gothenburg, Sweden | www.berginsight.com

Enabling Freedom for the Internet of Things.

Your wireless data solution is more than just data connectivity. We understand that.

So we not only built the world’s most advanced global wireless data management platform and private managed network, we also built our business upon the most important connections of all – our relationships with our partners, carriers and customers.

That’s why Wyless is the trusted provider to our partners and the trusted solution for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. We’re the easiest company to work with.

We listen to our customers and take pride in every connection. Wyless offers truly uncompromising LTE, 3G, and 2G data solutions, delivering worldwide wireless connectivity over the most secure and resilient private managed network infrastructure delivered in partnership with 19 Tier 1 MNOs in over 120 countries We provide unrivaled management tools and empower you with end-to-end managed services, technical expertise and dedicated support. So connect with the experts and together we’ll take your applications to the next level. You have found your true IOE ( Internet of Everything ) and broadband data partner.

+1 617 949 8900 +44 1895 454 699 info@wyless.com www.wyless.com