5G Use Case Demos: How Different Operators See the Future

Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas

Summary Bullets:

• At Mobile World Congress Americas and at the AT&T Business Summit, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T showcased their latest (or their splashiest) planned 5G use cases.

• While many of these applications are still in trial mode, they demonstrate the kinds of use cases key operators envision will be possible and compelling as 5G become ubiquitous enough for enterprise adoption.

At recent events, including Mobile World Congress Americas and the AT&T Business Summit, operator booth demos were dominated by 5G use cases, probably because they make the splashiest demos and point to the future of what may be possible rather than the more sedate set of offerings in the market today.

IoT Security is Still a Major Barrier to Adoption

Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas

Summary Bullets:

• IoT security still comes up as the number one deterrent to IoT adoption, year after year (after year!).

• While point solutions abound, the complex supplier ecosystem coupled with the diversity of IoT use cases and device types makes this a hard nut to crack.

Considering the fact that every survey ever conducted among enterprises over the last five years about IoT has shown that the number one barrier to adoption is lack of security, we would have expected the supplier ecosystem to finally “fix” this problem once and for all. But instead, with the advent of massive proliferation of IoT devices upon us, coupled with an occasional high-profile breach, enterprises are more cautious than ever and rightly so.

Deutsche Telekom’s Car SOC is Ready to Protect Drivers—Is the Auto Industry?

J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

• Connected cars are vulnerable to the same threats facing any Internet user or device

• Deutsche Telekom proposes its Car SOC to the industry, but as of today no one is responsible for protecting drivers from cyber attacks

Connected cars, like anything else using the Internet, are exposed to a range of vulnerabilities most drivers dare not even contemplate. Even without being connected, the digital technology in place is at risk from attackers, whether through the cloning of remote control key entry and engine starting, or from malware introduced to internal systems via infected diagnostic tools at the local garage.

IoT Projects Increasingly Target Revenue Growth

J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

• Most IoT projects to date have focused on increasing efficiency or reducing costs

• In 2018, IoT deployments are increasingly intended to generate new revenues as well

IoT offers operators and enterprises a slew of opportunities, with the rise of pervasive connectivity opening up new ways to both collect and generate data in pursuit of stronger businesses and a better experience for customers. The GlobalData IoT Innovations Tracker is following new deployments across sectors worldwide, capturing the key use cases and technology choices made by the deploying organizations. But it also considers the key questions for each deployment: Why are we doing this? What do we hope to gain from this IoT project?

Will Enterprise 5G Use Cases be Ready for Prime Time?

Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas

Summary Bullets:

• As some 5G networks will be commercially available by the end of this year, operators must now turn to development of compelling and realistic use cases beyond a faster rendition of 4G networking.
• Operators need to up their game if they are to be recompensed for the substantial investments they are making in 5G. The question is, will autonomous cars, robots, and virtual reality be enough to spark buyer interest?

While 5G services are not yet live, this next generation of wireless technology is already top of mind for service providers, OEMs, and other telecom market ecosystem players. Aside from gearing up to build out the technology, they will be working together to make sure that 5G use cases are compelling – i.e., different enough from 4G to matter to customers. As with any new generation of wireless, the stakes are high, and operators are hoping that they’ll make back their substantial investments in 5G. For most operators, this should come via a “massive” uptake of connectivity, plus revenues from advanced services spanning consumers and business customers.

Inmarsat: Filling IoT Coverage Gaps for ‘Always On’ Applications

A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• Satellite providers have key roles to drive IoT market especially in filling the coverage gaps in remote areas
• Satellites are mainly used for backhaul network, not so practical as the last mile access due to its technical limitations such as latency and physical dimensions

While some satellite providers are entering the IoT space and compete against the mobile operators (for more, please see Cable and Satellite Companies Pushing into IoT: Can They Win Against Mobile Operators?, July 6, 2018) other satellite providers such as Inmarsat are partnering with carriers to fill the IoT coverage gaps in areas beyond cellular network can reach offshore oilrigs, airplanes in transit, remote environmental monitoring, and vehicle and people tracking. Based on GlobalData’s IoT Deployment Database, there are more than 100 satellite-based IoT deployments tracked, with an installed base that almost doubled in the last two years. This also reflects the IoT market trend shown by GlobalData IoT Project Insight 2017 (n=924) where 17% of IoT deployments today are on fleet management (the third highest after equipment management and building management). In some cases, the satellite network is also used in cellular areas, but offered as network diversity to offer higher availability for mission critical applications such as payment terminals in petrol stations.

IoT for Air Quality, Behold the Power of Cooperation

Brad Shimmin – Research Director, Business Technology and Software

Summary Bullets:

• There may be no such thing as true altruism, but it’s safe to say that the multifaceted demands of IoT are creating a perfect storm of advantageous cooperation among technology and service providers, data producers and insight consumers.

• Case in point is IoT environmental sensor network vendor Aclima, which is using Google Street View cars to measure pollution levels within key urban areas in California. Aclima’s use case reveals how companies, residents and governments can help one another by sharing facilities, personal and environmental data.

Maybe it’s just the holiday spirit talking, but I think I “almost” believe in altruism. Don’t get me wrong. I remain a card carrying realist. To me, acts of kindness are indeed kind because they happen to benefit both giver and receiver. There’s nothing wrong with that, really. We give because it makes us feel good, because we anticipate some future reward or reciprocation, or because we feel obligated, which is oddly how one feels both giving and receiving a holiday fruitcake.

IoT Tech Developers & Establishing the Business Value of Their Innovations

J. Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

• Industrial IoT (IIoT) monitoring and control technology development is happening at nearly all levels of the economy from large industrial vendors and tech startups to local incubators seeking to export solutions designed for local problems.
• While there is an understandable focus on what is possible with IIoT monitoring and control, there also needs to be a clearer connection between much of this technology development and the business value it brings it IIoT buyers.

At a tech meetup in Austin, Texas, I recently had the chance to hear Digi.City founder Chelsea Collier and Pecan Street CIO Bert Haskell discuss his group’s focus on developing IoT technology R&D and disseminating that technology into the broader ecosystem.

By way of background, Pecan Street is a non-profit, funded by a combination of grants and a commercial revenue stream to “advance research and innovation in water and energy.” During the hour-long conversation, Mr. Haskell discussed a variety of topics related to how his team approaches technology development and how Pecan Street seeks to share (evangelize) its technology on a global basis; and though not directly, he also touched on some key challenges facing IoT-related technology commercialization.

Amazon Web Services Summit: Real-time IoT Insights via SQL? Say Hello to Kinesis Analytics

B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

• IoT platforms from major cloud platform players are quickly emerging, bringing to bear the economies of scale only available with the public cloud to the task of instrumenting business.
• No stranger to the public cloud, Amazon announced a new streaming analytics service that will open up IoT to a broad range of ISVs and enterprises by blending the familiarity of SQL with both speed and scale.

While enduring some pretty extreme heat (an index of over 110 degrees) in New York City late last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit, where I took in a particularly interesting keynote address given by the CTO and VP of Amazon.com, Dr. Werner Vogels. During his speech, Mr. Vogels trumped a familiar idea about digital transformation – basically, that companies abandon analog methods in favor of those digital – and the reasons why this is necessary not just to compete, but to remain in business.

Going Digital: Manufacturing is Taking the New Connected World Very Seriously

B. Washburn

Summary Bullets:
• The manufacturing sector is pulling far ahead of other vertical segments when it comes to going digital.

• Manufacturers are working new digital business on two vectors: Intelligence on their factory floor; and embedded in the products they build and ship.

Here at Current Analysis, we’ve been hearing our share of hype related to the Internet of Things (IoT). As interesting as sensors and connectivity and analytics might be individually, it’s really about the combination of these elements to create totally new digital business models. There’s no shortage of service provider and vendor pitches for going digital. The industry has its photogenic poster children, like Progressive’s behavior-based insurance program; GM OnStar connected car and telematics; and GE Predix with its comprehensive aircraft engine analytics.