Some white space

The upcoming analogue TV switch-off opens up some exciting opportunities for utilities and other companies to exploit smart grid communications according to this fascinating article on Smartgrid Opinions.

TV White Space is the name given to the naturally occurring gaps in the spectrum used by TV bands. This “white space”, along with the numerous channels that are soon to be freed up as we transition to digital broadcast, offers a host of possibilities for new services and business models. Why? Well, for a start it’s cheap as using the spectrum is free. It’s available globally and (once the analogue switch is complete) there will be masses of bandwidth available.

There’s a lot of excitement growing around the use of TVWS at the moment as this recent Radio 4 broadcast illustrates. It’s an appealing technology for a number of different market sectors and applications such as M2M, rural broadband provision and smartgrid look set to benefit as adoption grows.

There’s still a long way to go though. As the article explains, the technology is complex, the ecosystem is immature and there is little existing regulation and standardisation to work.

Watch this (white) space…

A wide ranging report, due to be presented at the upcoming Smart Energy International conference, has shown the increased acceptance of smart metering technology among American consumers.

The study by the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative surveyed more than 10 million smart meters at 20 US electric utilities and found that smart grid technologies were enabling utilities to deliver new models of customer engagement, service response and incentive programs. Moreover, the report concludes that there was an overwhelmingly positive response from US consumers to the changes being made.

The study highlights 10 core recommendations for best practice in the areas of engagement and consumer motivators that have helped to smooth the transition to smart grid technology. Key among these is the shift away from the simple “install and repair” model of engagement to the more customer oriented, complex relationship that smart grid technologies enable.Most successful utilities adopted a early education approach that focused closely on the near-term benefits of smart metering, particularly cost savings.

As utilities move toward smart metering it’s going to be extremely useful to have a set of best practices that help to smooth the transition from traditional engagement to smart metering. The report will be available for download at www.smartgridcc.org.

We’ve come across some great advice from our partners at iDirect on how to improve the efficiency of your network operations centre. It’s a very useful guide explaining how to keep up with the demands of an increasingly large network, you can read the full details here but here’s our shorthand version…

1. Integrate as much as possible. Take an inventory of all your systems and their respective functions. Where possible, where there is redeundancy or repetition – integrate.
2. Monitor as much as possible. Effective tracking and reporting enables you to identify issuse before they become problems. Historic and real-time data should be packaged and presented in a digestible, actionable format.
3. Automate as much as possible. Handing off routine tasks brings efficiency and cost savings. It also helps to automate diagnostic and support functions, it reduces support times and increases network efficiency.
4. Simplify as much as possible. Customers respond better when their expectations are managed and information is presented to them in a clear and concise way. Supporting SLAs in a clear, transparent manner breeds trust.
5. Communicate as much as possible. Allowing customers access to key data in real-time gives them meaningful control and allows them to manage their own traffic.

Berg Insights’ view on the future of vehicle based applications, what they loosely call “fleet management”  is very encouraging. Under the bracket “Fleet Management” they include all aspects of vehicle management, transport management, driver and mobile workforce solutions and applications linking vehicles to enterprise IT systems.

The prediction is that the European market for fleet management is entering a sustained growth phase that should deliver a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 21% for the next five years. This would mean that the number of installed fleet management systems will grow from it’s current level of around 2 million to over 5 million by the end of 2015.

There seem to be a few factors driving this adoption. Health and safety initiatives have a part to play, as do asset tracking and security concerns. However the main factors identified by the research seems to be the cost reductions (in hardware and connectivity) that have really enabled the widespread adoption of fleet management services.

Berg also point to the notable consolidation trend that’s happening in the market as vehicle manufacturers and OEMs begin partnering with one another and with service providers to offer a comprehensive service approach. It’s something that’s been in the news recently when Spanish telecom giant Telefonica announced a partnership with fleet management company Masternaut . It looks like this might be the beginning of a trend as the major players look to take advantage of this market growth.

More news from our partners at Globalstar as they announce that the satellite based Simplex data network has processed an average of more than 6.5 million messages per week over the a 4-week period in September.

This represents a massive 50% increase over similar data from January 2010, suggesting that the market for Simplex data traffic is rising rapidly.  Globalstar uses satellite based Simplex data M2M to offer a variety of solutions such as asset tracking and data monitoring.

“Customers who simply want to track or monitor the condition of mobile assets virtually anywhere are surprised to learn of the affordability of our low cost but highly reliable solution that operates from some of the most remote regions around the globe,” said Steve Smits, VP of International Sales and Marketing for Globalstar, Inc. “The low cost of acquisition combined with our affordable data rates make Globalstar an attractive solution for customers looking to effectively track everything from heavy equipment, vehicles and cargo containers to livestock and remote workers. Even as we launch our new constellation of satellites and restore our voice and duplex data services, we want to re-emphasize our commitment to providing innovative and affordable Simplex data M2M and SPOT retail solutions to this important and fast growing segment of the mobile satellite services marketplace.”

Here’s a fascinating story from one of our esteemed satellite partners, Iridium Communications. It explains how Iridium satellite technology plays an integral part in tackling the growing threat to international shipping from Somali pirates.

Iridium is the preferred communication medium for ship “citadels” – a fortified, onboard panic room where crew can take refuge if the ship encounters pirates. Earlier this year, NATO published guidelines for the comms systems to be used in these citadels and specified self-contained, independent, two-way external communications, sepcifically a satellite voice and email solution.

Due to its global reach, compact size and low latency SBD for tracking, Iridium has emerged as the favoured partner for these on-board emergency systems and is currentle being deployed in citadel systems worldwide.

Starting in 2013 that means the national roll-out of up to 35 million electricity smart meters across the country at a cost of around €4.3 bn.

The news was announced by French minister for Industry Eric Besson who claimed that 7 million of the meters (known as “Linkys”) would be deployed by the end of 2014, with the remainder due for national roll-out by the end of 2018. This would out the French well ahead of the EU’s 2020 target.

The installation is to be carried out by ERDF, the largest distribution system operator in France and a division of energy company EDF. The project is expected to generate more than 10,000 jobs for the French economy and should help French companies gain valuable experience and a headstart in the soon-to-explode smart grid market.

Not everyone’s delighted with the news though, new figures seen by Le Parisien newspaper suggest that the average French consumer could see a rise in energy prices (€2 per month and a one-off €42 charge) unless the French goverment makes the decision to subsidise the cost of these 35 million units.

Iridium Communications announced last month that it had reached a significant milestone. As of September 12th, Iridium  clocked up its 500,000th billable subscriber for its satellite voice and data services. The profiel of these customers is 90% commercial against 10% government.

One of the main reasons Irdium has cited for this growth is the rapidly expanding M2M data market. Q2 2011 results showed that M2M subscribers now account for 32% of billable commercial subscribers.

“Our consistent double-digit growth in subscribers — more than 25 percent growth every year for the last five years — is a reflection of our global network reach, our service offerings enabling important connections, and our expanding partner ecosystem,” said Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium. “This milestone demonstrates how far we’ve evolved over the last 10 years from a supplier of mobile satellite phones for niche markets into a global communications company connecting anyone and anything, all over the world, in ways and places in which they expect to be connected.”

We’re looking forward to more positive news from all our satellite patners and to seeing how Iridium NEXT (the company’s next-gen network) adds additional value for partners and cusomers.

Very encouraging news last week from one of our major partners for M2M cellular solutions. Everythingeverywhere announced the launch of a new M2M management platform designed to simplify M2M solution  deployment and help the company and its partners expand into new markets.

The new platform will help customers self-adminster and manage their accounts and connections from a simple portal.It will be followed by an API release to enable partners to integrate and develop add-ons for the Everythingeverywhere solution.

The platform officially launched on the 29th September.

Cellular M2M in Door Entry Systems