However, carriers that have already ventured into M2M see it more as a managed services play for enterprises that simplifies an otherwise complex service and delivers it over a nationwide or even international footprint.
When Vodafone launched its M2M platform, its global enterprise chief, Nick Jeffery said, "service providers like Vodafone need to provide customers with managed connectivity that is reliable, cost effective and universal" in order for M2M to reach its true potential."
SK Telecom has a similar strategy behind the various M2M services it's been offering since 2002, from remote meter reading and street lamp control to a managed M2M platform, says SKT solution business team manager Jung-Hyun Kim.
"Mobile carriers can develop a new market with B2B business models by increasing the usage of existing networks," Kim says. "By using solutions provided by the mobile carriers, corporate customers that do not own networks will benefit from being able to manage their operational resources in the most efficient manner, and the overall efficiency of the industry will be enhanced as well."
The Qualcomm/Verizon venture is also focused on shielding enterprises from the complexity of M2M, says St George.
"A lot of companies underestimate what needs to be done for a successful M2M business - how to manage devices, add and drop them, data mining," he says. "We can make it easy for people who don't understand it and just want a portal to manage devices and make it easy. It's like you see a duck on the surface of the water and we're underneath doing all the paddling."
However, while M2M sounds more appealing than ever as a B2B play for cellcos and has still come a long way in overcoming the hurdles, it hasn't cleared all of them. Not yet.