The opportunity for globalization of M2M services is an incredibly attractive proposition. Shipping and supply-chain solutions, for instance, can be a huge benefit: shipping containers with perishable goods can be tracked and monitored down to the exact temperature inside the container, and air quality can be measured in real time. In short, any simple but rich solution with demonstrable business applications is fair game; even the US Department of Defense relies on M2M to track supplies and weapons for use during wartime. But globalization of reliable connectivity must be in place to make it all possible. 

Previously, multiple carriers in multiple markets built multiple relationships with some level of roaming. “Now almost every carrier and carrier group is strong in a particular geography — Europe and Asia, for example,” says Brisbourne. In his opinion “the next step is to bring multiple carriers to the table to support customers on a worldwide basis. Instead of managing multiple relationships they can have one.”

M2M inefficiencies

Once connectivity challenges have been addressed, gaining efficiencies is paramount. The low-revenue, high-volume nature of M2M transactions leads many CSPs to try SIM (subscriber identity module) cards and batch provisioning of devices in order to drive down the cost of deployment. At Mobile World Congress in February, Spain-based Telefónica and the seven other members of the M2M multi-operator alliance — KPN (the Netherlands), NTT Docomo (Japan), Rogers Communications (Canada), SingTel (Singapore), Telstra (Australia), VimpelCom (also the Netherlands), and, most recently, Etisalat (United Arab Emirates) — announced trials of Single Worldwide SIM cards, which would allow a company like BMW to install a card in one of its smart cars that, once activated, could recognize its particular region and provision itself accordingly, freeing BMW from installing various cards in automobiles destined for various regions.

“These SIM cards have been available on the grey market for years,” Brisbourne says, but introducing smart SIMs to multinational corporations makes more widespread M2M deployments a better value proposition for all parties involved. Last year the M2M multi-operator alliance, the largest mobile-operator coalition in the world, announced its plan to eliminate M2M complexity for multinational companies by bringing technology to market that would simplify multinetwork solutions and the process of global deployments.

Some of the most ambitious M2M deployments of recent years are driving the solutions behind enhanced connectivity and efficiencies. For example, Singapore’s government has mandated that the one million-plus vehicles on its roads be wirelessly enabled for toll-road collections and traffic congestion management. And prior to its hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China declared that all taxis must be wired for traffic management. These types of large projects require a mesh of strong, regional carriers, but once interconnectivity is established, it can be used for pay-as-you-drive insurance, mobile healthcare solutions and many other life-improving M2M services that loom just over the horizon.

But many challenges loom as well, including simple RFID (radio-frequency identification) tagging. RACO Wireless president John Horn believes that M2M connections, which are built on basic IP addresses and cell phone numbers, will exceed the numbers available under the current system. “It’s also critical to plan for the future of network evolution,” he says. “POTS [‘plain old telephone service’] lines are dead.”

M2M by the numbers 

Berg Insight forecasts that the number of cellular M2M connections will grow to 359.3 million by 2016 and that shipments of cellular M2M devices will reach 152.2 million units that same year. The wide adoption of wireless M2M technology across many industries has caused a substantial share of device shipments to be generated by replacement sales. As a result, the analyst firm says, the net increase of M2M subscribers will be substantially lower than that of M2M device shipments.

The sheer number of devices being connected every second is creating a problem much greater than a numbering problem, Multiply dozens of Diameter signaling messages by millions of smartphones and you now have choke points that could potentially take down an entire network. According to Tekelec, by 2016 the growth of Diameter-signaling traffic will more than triple that of mobile-data traffic, and Diameter messages per second (MPS) will increase to 47 million.

M2M and “the Internet of Things” are quickly moving from concept to reality, but carriers and CSPs will first need to face the three critical challenges of reach, reliability and revenue efficiencies. Everyone wants to plug into a network, and one that’s designed to support tomorrow’s global needs will be positioned to help the world run infinitely.