Look Who's Talking: The M2M Landscape

By Jesse Cryderman

The latest Visual Networking Index from Cisco predicts that for the first time in history, mobile connections will outnumber people this year. With a current worldwide population of roughly 7 billion, that’s a mountain of phones. But increasingly, it’s not a human being at the end of the line: in eight years, nearly 20 percent of all cellular connections will be occupied by machines. Cellular connectivity of the M2M variety is going into everything from traffic lights to energy meters to billboards, representing a massive growth opportunity for agile service providers and vendors. And by "massive growth opportunity," I mean "goldmine." Last October, the GSMA predicted M2M communications revenue growing to $1.2 trillion by 2020. Yes, that’s Trillion, with a “T.”

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M2M Offerings: What's the Difference?

By Tim Young

Just a few weeks ago, Cisco released the latest iteration of its Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data forecast, which had plenty to say about the shape of things to come. The report (and you can read more about it here) has lots of interesting things to say about the massive volumes that will be careening through the airwaves in the years to come. Among other things, Cisco figures that by 2016, annual mobile data traffic will exceed 130 exabytes.

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How Secure is M2M?

By Jesse Cryderman

In August of last year, two researchers at an annual Black Hat security conference demonstrated some very clever and simple hacking with some very devastating results. They effectively stole a Subaru Outback by sending text messages from an Android phone.

It gets worse.

"I could care less if I could unlock a car door," researcher Don Bailey told CNN. "It's cool. It's sexy.

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Harnessing the Potential of Ethernet Backhaul

By Juan Prieto, InfoVista

For service providers, it’s no secret that mobile data traffic has exploded over the last few years.

AT&T, for example, in one of its FCC filings related to its ill-fated attempt to acquire T-Mobile USA, cited capacity constraints as a chief motivation behind the merger. The company noted that the smartphones that had become ubiquitous on its network consumed 24 times the data of conventional handsets, and that overall mobile data consumption had increased by 8,000 percent between 2007 and 2010.

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M2M: An Ecosystem in Flux
Simplicity and flexibility will determine winners

By Becky Bracken

M2M is driving an increasingly complex relationship between networks, service providers and an exploding number of devices coming online, which is expected to reach 20 billion by 2020. Those devices will be powered and connected by a complicated convergence of networks, CSPs and devices that is just now taking shape. M2M winners will be determined by the ability to form the strategic partnerships necessary to quickly and effectively deliver a variety of M2M services to enterprise customers that produce immediate bottom-line results.

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Smart Grids: CSPs Retool Utilities for the Broadband Economy

By Becky Bracken

Michael Valocchi was working on smart grids before it was fashionable, about six years ago. Now, as vice president of Global Energy and Utilities, IBM, he says he's encouraged to hear people outside of the energy industry getting serious about smart grid technology.

“Smart grid has become mainstream, which is where it belongs,” Valocchi says. “We've been on an interesting journey for a number of years.”

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CSP Independence Through M2M

By Krzysztof Kwiatkowski

The M2M market is bound to be growing, according to the research of leading analyst companies. Currently the market is still relatively small but its potential is huge. In the long run it will become a strategic segment for many communication service providers. Therefore, good strategic decisions related to M2M are of great importance - telecom operators must be prepared for market growth and protect their competitive positions. This is why independence and ability to compete as well as customer ownership are essential factors for those service providers that want to win on the M2M market.

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Newswatch - March 2012

By Jesse Cryderman

Huawei Walks Tall

Hardly a week went by last month without a big announcement from Chinese network equipment and device manufacturer Huawei. Yes, Huawei is the subject of investigations by both the US Commerce Department and the House Intelligence Committee for possible connections with the Chinese military. Yes, Huawei’s staff size alone—110,000--resembles a standing army. But that’s old news.

Despite security concerns that ebb and flow in North America and parts of Europe, the mammoth multi-national recently signed network equipment deals with Telus, Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE Inc.), Orange Poland, T-Mobile Poland, and TeliaSoneria, among others. Some of these deals saw Huawei partnering (piggybacking?) with another equipment provider.

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Letter from the Editor

By Tim Young

Every time I hear the phrase machine-to-machine communications, I think about lovable movie robots.

I can’t help it.

I mean, sure. I think about a wealth of practical connected devices, too. I think of smart meters and telematics and parking meters that know when I’ve overstayed my quarter and vending machines that know that I like a touch of lemon flavor in my Diet Coke. I think about new business possibilities for communications service providers and new levels of efficiency for the enterprises they serve. I think of growth and possibility.

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