Mobile operators have had a decade to deal with the knowledge that they could no longer control or monetize most of the services running over their networks, as the world moved to OTT IP offerings. Now they are realizing that they might not control the networks themselves for much longer as rival companies build dedicated networks for M2M and IoT products, stealing traffic from the incumbent cellular operators.
We saw last week that Sigfox launched a UK IoT network in 10 cities, in partnership with Arqiva, operating in the unlicensed ultra-narrowband (UNB) frequencies. Arqiva is licensing the technology from Sigfox, which has deployments in France, Spain, the Netherlands, Moscow and Munich.
Sigfox is now working on its first US project, initially in San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley, which will create what it is billing as the first dedicated IoT network in the country (although there are already plenty of private M2M systems). Sigfox aims to expand into 10 further US markets in the next 12-18 months.
Pricing will be no more than $1 per month per device, and sometimes as low as $1 per year for very low bandwidth devices. Consumer devices will likely have this charge factored into the cost of the device, although this model has not yet taken off among other consumer goods, such as tablets ‘ largely due to the difference between IoT and media content bandwidth consumption. The first US Sigfox customer is the Whistle GPS dog collar, which will let Californians track the activity of their pets.
Back in the UK, Neul is working on creating a non-cellco, ultra-low power wireless network for IoT applications. It has worked on trials with BT and could support specialist services for mobile operators or directly for enterprises. It has its own technology, Weightless, another indicator of the push for networks that are developed specifically for the requirements of low energy gadgets. The challenge for the cellcos now is to try to ensure they have a powerful role in the value chain, even in markets where LTE does not prove to be a dominant solution.
This week, BT and Neul joined a consortium of companies building a citywide M2M network in the city of Milton Keynes, which will also serve as a demonstration system for Weightless and a testbed for firms developing new applications and services for the M2M platform.
Alan Ward, head of corporate ICT practice at BT, said in a statement: “We see this exciting project as a means of establishing an open innovation environment to support the creation of M2M and IoT applications across a whole city. This could include anything from intelligent monitoring of parking spaces in the city to networked bins which signal when they need collecting. The project will showcase BT’s capability in managing network services for these applications which will be pivotal in making this initiative a success.’
Geoff Snelson, strategy director at Milton Keynes Council, said: ‘As well as providing a testbed for our own specific use cases, this will bring new innovation and business development to the city, creating an ecosystem of IoT development.’