Rise of the machines (again)

John C. Tanner
03 Sep 2009
00:00

Price compression

Another factor driving renewed interest in M2M is that the hardware prices have come down significantly, says Alex Brisbourne, CEO of KORE Telematics.

"We've seen a lot of price compression in the last 18 months. A GSM module now costs less than $20, and in the next couple of years it will drop to the low teens before it flattens out," he says. "So the actual finished device can be priced at under $100, and that will go down to between $50 and $70, which will open up the market significantly. If you just need simple connectivity, of course, it will be even lower."

Similarly, bandwidth pricing has changed as cellcos revamp their mobile data plans from expensive and confusing per-megabyte charges to flexible flat rates, says St George. "Because carriers are more interested now in M2M, we've seen a lot of them modifying their prices and deals to go after that market."

The 4G factor

The move towards LTE and Wimax is also a significant factor in the M2M revival, despite the fact that current M2M apps use so little data that they can purr along smoothly even on legacy GPRS or CDMA 1x networks.

"Smart meters don't need a lot of bandwidth. But as more and more devices come onto the network, operators need to be able to manage them better, and the extra capacity helps," says Doug Chambers, director of market development at the GSM Association. "The other thing to consider is the consumer electronics sector - not just Kindles and smart books, but digital photo frames and cameras will have wireless connectivity, and you're going to need big pipes for that."

St George of the Qualcomm/Verizon JV lists several "bandwidth hog" apps coming to M2M: "consumer devices with larger screens displaying video, camcorders uploading directly over the air while the consumer is shooting video, interactive gaming and video monitoring for security."

He adds that while current 3G networks can handle such apps in terms of throughput and latency, "the critical element for these apps to scale is network capacity. One person streaming HD video won't crash a carrier's network, but millions doing it would with today's networks."

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