The GSMA has launched a new project that it hopes will ensure that cellular technology is the de facto standard that underpins the Internet of Things (IoT).
Called the Mobile IoT Initiative, it will address the use of low power wide area (LPWA) solutions in licensed spectrum.
It will explore three possible options for cellular IoT technologies: extending the capability of LTE to include LPWA services; doing likewise but with GSM; and entirely new, as yet undefined standards, referred to as a ‘clean slate’ technologies.
It hopes to draw up an initial specification by the end of 2015, followed by a first implementation in early 2016, with a view to full commercial solutions later next year.
"The market opportunity for LPWA will be a significant driver in the development of the IoT and it’s essential that the mobile industry address the requirements for LPWA cases early on," said Alex Sinclair, acting director general and CTO of the GSMA, in a statement last week.
The Mobile IoT Initiative is backed by 26 operators and vendors, including the likes of AT&T, China Mobile, Vodafone, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm, among others (see below for the full list).
"The industry is clearly united behind the Mobile IoT Initiative, providing a common vision to accelerate the availability of industry-standard solutions, removing market fragmentation and accelerating adoption," Sinclair said.
Last week’s announcement represents a ramp-up in the GSMA’s efforts around M2M and IoT, which until now have been covered under its Connected Living programme.
However, as with other ill-fated GSMA initiatives – like the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), and its Joyn-branded Rich Communication Services (RCS) – there is a risk that Mobile IoT Initiative is already too late to the party to have much of an impact.
Momentum is already bui lding behind M2M technologies like LTE-M, a version of LTE designed to provide long range, low power IoT and M2M coverage using licensed spectrum.
Then there are technologies that use unlicensed spectrum to consider.
The LoRa Alliance is an industry group lobbying for the adoption of the long range WAN (LoRaWAN) specification for low power wide area network (LPWAN) technology.
LoRaWAN could be particularly useful for IoT services targeted at remote, battery-powered devices because it can transmit small volumes of data over long distances using unlicensed spectrum, and it only needs a small amount of power to do so.
French telco Bouygues Telecom is a big fan, having launched a LoRa IoT network in June.
It remains to be seen whether the GSMA’s Mobile IoT Initiative can buck its recent record of heroic defeats.
The GSMA’s Mobile IoT Initiative is backed by:
AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Canada, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Etisalat, Huawei, Gemalto, Intel, KDDI, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Ooredoo, Orange, Qualcomm Incorporated, Sierra Wireless, Singtel, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, Telstra, u-blox and Vodafone.
