Verizon this week detailed its strategy to place itself firmly in the centre of the Internet of Things (IoT) market.
So far this year, the U.S. telco has generated IoT revenues of US$495 million. Despite this early success though, Verizon said more needs to be done to realise its potential.
"IoT is still too complex, too fragmented, too expensive to connect and too hard to scale. Success in that future relies on a leader that can cut through the complexity and change the IoT model," said Mike Lanman, senior vice president of enterprise products at Verizon, in a statement on Wednesday.
Unsurprisingly, Lanman believes that Verizon can be that leader.
"With our experience in networks, devices, platforms and applications, we are taking a holistic approach to simplifying adoption to expand the IoT market from millions to billions of connections," he said.
With that in mind, Verizon made a series of announcements aimed at delivering on this promise, starting with ThingSpace, a Web-based platform that gives developers the tools they need to create, launch and manage IoT services – even if they are not a Verizon customer.
The telco has also created a new core network dedicated to LTE-based IoT services, which it says will r educe the cost and complexity of connecting to a wide-area network running on licensed spectrum, as opposed to unlicensed alternatives like WiFi. Verizon is also working with device makers to embed LTE chipsets in a wide range of connected machines to automate the provisioning process.
"Additional enhancements planned in 2016 include enabling power-save mode for IoT devices to facilitate several years of battery life," Verizon said.
To help customers make the most of their IoT services, Verizon is in the process of commercialising its big data analytics platform, to, in its own words, "turn raw data into usable intelligence."
In addition, Verizon is also taking aim at smart cities, focusing on three areas to begin with: intelligent video, intelligent lighting, and intelligent traffic management.
"Smart cities are complex. They work best when their systems can coordinate and communicate with each other seamlessly. What is the correlation between a street light and public safety, or parking and traffic flow?" asked Lanman.
"Our intelligent solutions can be used as important tools for revitalizing urban life, stimulating economic development and making communities more dynamic, resilient, sustainable and secure," he said.
