By 2020, there will be 30 billion connected devices globally, up from 12 billion at the end of a year ago, IDC estimated.
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At an event in San Francisco, the huge US carrier launched ThingSpace, a platform for application development, device management and other tasks required to make IoT offerings a reality. The company on Wednesday announced it is building an entirely new 4G LTE network core specifically designed for small devices that need occasional bits of data, but not enough to justify the cost of a traditional cellular connection.
Verizon plans to offer all the pieces needed to get connected devices out in the world serving consumers and enterprises.
Last week, Verizon revealed that its Internet of things business delivered almost $500 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2015. The market for Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets, connectivity and other related services will reach $1.7 trillion, according to IDC. “The IoT will become a crucial tool for businesses of every sector and avsnet has demonstrated it has the highest level of industry understanding, technical experience and dedication to its customers to help drive the IoT forward”. One is Hahn Family Wines, a family-owned winery in Northern California. Hahn uses sensors in its vineyards to detect when the plants need water and fungicides so it can apply those in a targeted way, saving resources, said Paul Clifton, Hahn’s director of winemaking. It includes APIs (application programming interfaces) that developers can browse and utilize as they see fit, with Verizon getting a share of the revenue they help to bring in. It will provide 4G LTE connectivity in modules connected to IoT devices to “make the wide-area network more accessible to developers”. Cost and power consumption often influence the choice of a network.
Verizon doesn’t want to wait that long to start wiring up all manner of smart devices, Lanman said. Verizon’s strategic relationship with rfXcel uses IoT technology and leverages the Verizon network, to provide near real-time monitoring of product environments.
Lanman and his team recognized the impediments for developing and launching IoT devices – including complexity, fragmentation and costs – and set out two years ago to take the complexity out of it. What they came up with are lower-priced modules for embedding in devices, including a chipset from Sequans that Lanman mentioned during the event, as well as lowering the network access charges, which he said was a tougher one to solve. Without that lean, dedicated core, Verizon’s infrastructure wouldn’t be able to accommodate billions of devices. In the energy example, the smart meter knows when you’re home and – more importantly – when you’re not which is rightfully of concern especially when the information is being shared with many devices and companies.
Much of Verizon’s talk on Wednesday was about the business uses for cellular connections, such as in utility metering, agriculture and industrial applications.
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Devices or objects under IoT, can be connected seamlessly on networks and communicate with least human intervention.
