M2M : Machine 2 Machine

We have seen a steady stream of news comming from major carriers about their plans of entering the M2M space and now we are seeing the steps each one is taking. Verizon with nPhase, ATT with Jasper, and more..
T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom plans to open a new development centre for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications technology.

T-Mobile said it is making good progress with M2M deployments as part of its ‘Connected Work’ strategy in Germany, its home land, already, and the new ‘International Competence Centre’ for M2M technology will see it step-up roll-out.

It said it provides M2M solutions to customers in nine different business sectors, and cited BMW as a major customer and confirmed Continental as a recent client.

“We believe every car in the future will be a moving network and have an IP address,” said T-Mobile.

The new M2M centre will be staffed by around 150, and be based at Deutsche Telekom’s headquarters in Bonn, Germany.

M2M is getting more main stream exposure –

Rob Conway, chairman of the GSM Association, challenged technology manufacturers in February to integrate in some capacity mobile broadband in to all their products by 2014.

He was addressing the Mobile World Congress, and referring to products such as cameras, printers, memory cards, printers and vehicles, among a multitude of other items. The opportunity, he said, is to embed SIM cards in 750 million new devices.

“We have only just begun the mobile broadband journey,” said Conway. “The embedded mobile broadband market can grow as chip prices go down and new usages are developed.”

Machine to machine communications, or M2M as it is known, is in its simplest form the integration of mobile SIM cards and a data modems in products to read and relay information via GPRS.

It is already a significant market; and represents the first roots of Conway’s vision.

The best-known example of M2M communication in the consumer space is probably the deployment of Vodafone SIM cards in TomTom’s satellite navigation systems, enabling transfer of up-to-date traffic information and relevant local information to users.

And that trend looks to be not only a boon for operators, but for industrial and public-safety entities as well. During his keynote address last week, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, now the largest mobile operator in the US, said the next generation of wireless will be one that ushers in penetration rates for the wireless industry of more than 500 percent.

Specifically, Seidenberg said Verizon Wireless’ choice of all-IP Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in the 700 MHz band will enable a connected world that not only connects people but people to machines and machines to machines.

“In this model, there is literally no limit on the number of connections that can be part of the mobile grid: cars, appliances, buildings, roads, sensors, medical monitors and someday even inventories on supermarket shelves,” Seidenberg said. “All of these have the potential to become inherently intelligent — perpetually connected nodes on the mobile web.”

AT CTIA ATT reaffirmed it support for a future where devices talk to each other over Wireless ( Cellular, WiFI). This is Machine to machine 2 Machine communication (M2M).

April 2, 2009 (Computerworld) LAS VEGAS — AT&T Inc. is working with developers to wirelessly enable a plethora of consumer electronics, representatives said at the International CTIA Wireless show today.

The trend of creating connected consumer electronics has been going on for some time, but AT&T is rethinking how it will charge for the wireless service behind such devices, especially if customers used multiple wireless devices, AT&T representatives said.

Glenn Lurie, president of emerging devices for AT&T, said most customers would not want to spend $10 a month for wireless simply to send a photo from a digital camera to a digital picture frame. But a customer might be willing to pay for a one-time use, or even several uses, he said.

With connectivity pricing recognized as the key to success, and the strong interest by device makers to add wireless capability, AT&T Mobility president Ralph de la Vega sees a bright future. He said consumers would walk into a Best Buy or Wal-Mart store sometime in the future “and there won’t be a device in the store that will not be wirelessly enabled,” de la Vega said.

He said cameras, e-readers and personal navigation devices are already able to connect today, but added data features are possible. Nearly always-on connectivity was closer to reality if devices were made to work across Wi-Fi and 3G cellular networks.

De la Vega said that smaller companies might not be able to add a 3G wireless network radio chip to a camera, but could afford to add a Wi-Fi radio chip instead.

Lurie said his emerging devices group is working with small developers on radio-enabling various devices. “Some are even coming out of the garage with duct tape on the device,” he said.

ABI Research analyst Kevin Burden said that the market for connected electronics will be “huge,” adding that ABI is assessing its size in current research. Lurie gave one estimate of $90 billion in five years.

Burden said that a few years ago, wireless devices were focused on converging mobile phones with computers, while the new trend is making many devices Internet-connected. “You really can’t have one device do everything,” Burden said.

Quote from IBM that talks about intelligent Deivices as it appeared in NYT

Quote -

In his speech, Mr. Palmisano points to the technology trends that are beginning to make his proposal possible and affordable. Items ranging from cars, appliances and packaged goods to roadways and utility wires, he says, are increasingly “instrumented” with transistors, sensors and radio frequency ID, or RFID, tags, “interconnected” over the Internet and “intelligent” because of advanced software that communicates with vast supercomputing data centers.

In energy, for example, computerized grids, thermostats and appliances can sense and communicate line failures or automatically turn off air-conditioners during peak load times to save money and fuel.