According to their latest VNI (Visual Networking Index), Cisco predict a 22-fold rise in M2M traffic over the next 4-5 years. This is a huge CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 86% and means that by 2016, monthly M2M traffic will reach a staggering 508,022 terabytes of data.

The report suggests that M2M will account for 5% of all cellular traffic by 2016 and the average module will be generating 266 megabytes of data every month. That’s a rise from 4% in 2011 and a measly 71 megabytes of date per module.

So what’s responsible for this? Cisco point to 4 business categories that they expect to drive the demand for M2M services over the next five years.

• Security and Surveillance. This is mainly at the enterprise and consumer level where Cisco predicts significant growth in mobile based security cameras for applications such as petcams, nannycams and the next generation of home security.
• Healthcar. MHealth is tipped to be a boom area as healthcare providers seek to deliver services remotely via mobile networks.
• Inventory and fleet management. With the number of shipping containers and high value assets on the rise, this aspect of asset tracking is predicted to grow significantly.
• Telematics. A broad and promising area for M2M services with applications that could range from intelligent motor insurance to sophisticated vehicle manegement systems.

A new report from Berg Insight has just been published which points to a massive forecast rise  in the real-time container tracking market. Real-time container tracking is a subset of the asset tracking market, aimed at providing security and efficiency savings to the global freight and shipping industry.

Real-time container tracking is a market that Wireless Innovation have been active in for some time as it fits our skill set quite neatly. Global container tracking requires ubiquitous online connectivity and the ability to support both mobile and satellite technologies in the same application so it’s naturally a market where we have had a lot of experience.

Berg Insight suggests that the market for shipping container tracking is about to enter a period of sustained growth, with the number of tracking systems (GPRS and Satellite) growing by an annual 66.9% CAGR over the next 5 years. This is great news for everyone involved in the container tracking market and should help to open up all sorts of new value add and aftermarket opportunities.

We came across an interesting article today which points to the phenomenal recent growth in the commercial satellite communications market. The market for satcoms equipment is fighting fit despite the global recession and looks set to maintain its pivotal position in the burgeoning communications market.

The article points to a number of important growth factors in the satcoms market that have lead to an increased demand for satellite services. In the commercial realm, demand for high definition video and broadband internet services have helped to increase the need for satellite capacity and forced operators to expand their operations to all areas of the globe. As broadband internet moves from being a value-add to a must-have service, satellite technology is increasingly called upon to deliver broadband to remote or rural areas that are beyond the traditional communications infrastructure.

Governments are also helping to drive the demand for commercial satcoms. With budgets squeezed and large infrastructure projects untenable, many government agencies are opting to lease capacity on commercial satellites, hosting payloads and purchasing orbit time rather than investing in their own satellite infrastructure.

It all points to a relatively upbeat mid-term for the commercial satcoms market.

Along with a selection of their global partners, key personnel from Wireless Innovation will be attending the annual Iridium partner conference in Hawaii next week.

We’re actively seeking distribution partners for a range of our products and services and would be happy to meet with any interested Iridium partners at the event to discuss opportunities.

If you’re interested in learning more about partnering with Wireless Innovation, why not drop us an email to arrange a meeting?

We look forward to an interesting and informative week in Hawaii.

Exciting news from another one of our partners, Inmarsat have launched a new BGAN M2M service, a new two-way IP data service aimed at M2M applications.

The new real-time service provide a low-cost solution for applications sending between 1MB and 50MB of data per month which makes it ideal for a range of SCADA/ Telemetry applications as well as smart metering, asset monitoring and environmental data logging.

We look forward to learning more as the service rolls out.

With the M2M market expanding at such a phenomenal rate, the need for global M2M standards is more pressing than ever. In response to this, seven of the world’s leading standards agencies joined forces last week to set out common global standards for M2M communications.

The seven organisations are:

• TTA  - Telecommunications Technology Association (Korea)
• TTC  - Telecommunication Technology Committee (Japan)
• ARIB – The Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (Japan)
• ATIS – The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (USA)
• TIA – The Telecommunications Industry Association (USA)
• ETSI – The European Telecommunications Standards Institute
• CCSA – The China Communications Standards Association

We came across this excellent article recently that touches on many issues that are sure to grow in importance over the coming few months.

There are yet more figures here relating to the possible size of the market and the speed of its growth and unsurprisingly, they are contradictory. IDC are apparently suggesting that M2M apps will be a $16bn market while Garner point to a figure of around $25bn by 2015. One thing is for sure though, as M2M adoption increases it’s inevitable that the complexity of the M2M market will increase too.

New applications will inevitably be developed, new partnerships formed, new business models created and new entrants will enter the market. The end result of all this frantic activity could be additional layers of complexity and cost that may hinder the market in the short term if they’re not nipped in the bud. As the article points out, complicated strategic relationships and complex contracts will benefit no-one and the message seems clear – when you are looking for an M2M partnership, look for transparency and simplicity. Be sure you know who you are dealing with an work together for a clear, defined and achievable SLA.

Long awaited news came in over the Christmas period confirming that Globalstar had successfully launched six of its new second generation satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The new satellites were launched using the Soyuz-Fregat version of the Soyuz launch vehicle on Wednesday 28th December. Each of the six new vehicles was successfully injected into a low earth orbit of around 920km and the company has confirmed that in-orbit testing is underway and that all of the new satellites are operating as they should be.

It’s very welcome news for Globalstar as their planned upgrades have been beset by financial and technical troubles and unscheduled delays. The launch is the third of a planned series of four that will enable Globalstar to roll out the world’s finest quality mobile satellite and voice services. The new satellites have been designed with a 15 year life expectancy, twice as long as the spacecraft they replace.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce the successful third launch and continued deployment of our second-generation constellation,” said Tony Navarra, President of Global Operations for Globalstar, Inc. “We are now only one launch away from completing our four second-generation satellite launches and we look forward to the future services our new constellation will support. With these six new satellites now safely in orbit, we once again congratulate and applaud all of our Globalstar employees world-wide and thank launch provider Arianespace as well as our satellite contractor Thales Alenia Space for this launch success.”

The team at Wireless Innovation would like to offer our congratulations to Globalstar. They are a valued partner and we look forward to continued success.

The UK government has published a progress report on the state of the renewable energy industry in the UK and it shows clearly the economic benefits of investing in renewable sources.

According to last week’s report from the DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change), the renewable energy industry is responsible for more than £2.5 billion of investment in the UK economy and is set to create more than 12,000 new jobs this fiscal year. There is an EU wide initiative to source 20% of all energy from renewable sources by 2020 and, though the UK is committed to a smaller percentage (15%), this recent announcement marks a major step forward in meeting these targets.

A separate report from the European Commission provided further details on the UK’s progress:

• A threefold increase in the use of transport biofuels from 1% in 2007 to 3.3% in 2010.
• Greater use of wind generation, up by 46% from 7TWh in 2008 to 10.2TWh in2010.
• A 27% increase in renewable energy use representing 3.3% of total energy consumed.

We’ve mentioned before the massive growth forecasts that surround the M2M market. This article gives some serious thought to what that actually means for networks and network operators.

Research from Australia suggests that, though M2M data traffic is currently manageable, there will come a time in the near future when growth begins to ask some very serious questions of network operators. With forecasts suggesting that we can expect a 30 fold increase in data traffic, more devices sending larger pieces of data, the bottlenecks that currently existing networks will need to be addressed.

M2M traffic prioritisation will become a major concern for operators over the coming few years as M2M devices multiply. This will require greater control and flexibility which will require investment in the storage and handling of M2M data. It’s clear that standardisation is a critical factor in M2M growth and ETSI’s recent attempts here are a welcome step forward. More will  be required though and the industry is watching as operators begin to increase their investment in the M2M infrastructure.