Mobile World Congress (MWC), the largest technology conference in the mobile communications world, is happening this week in Barcelona. Here’s a roundup of IoT-related news coming out of the event.
Significant Buzz Around Developing Mobile Standards
Much of the news coming out of MWC is related to 5G, the fifth-generation cellular communications protocol that supports data speeds of 10 to 20 gigabits per second, with very low latency, and which is seen as a key building block for IoT applications, such as autonomous transportation, that will require mobile broadband communications. Companies also announced progress in developing Narrow Band Long-Term Evolution (NB-LTE) networks. NB-LTE, which is moving toward standardization, uses narrow bands of cellular radio spectrum to transmit short packets of data, making it applicable to many IoT use cases, such as smart metering, for which standard LTE broadband is overkill.
• Intel announced a range of 5G projects, including a partnership with LG Electronics (which provides components for General Motors‘ 4G LTE OnStar telematics system) to develop and pilot a 5G vehicular telematics system, which the companies say will support vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-pedestrian communication capabilities.
• T-Mobile US and Nokia are jointly developing a pre-standards 5G test network for lab and field trials during the second half of 2016. Verizon and Nokia said they recently conducted a 5G field trial in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. (The International Telecommunication Union, which sets mobile communication standards, is not expected to finalize a 5G standard until 2020.)
• Nokia, working with Intel and Vodafone Group, demonstrated an NB-LTE network at MWC, showing use cases for both urban and rural areas.
• Singapore-based telco Singtel said it will partner with Ericsson to begin a NB-LTE trial later this year, in Singapore.
Jasper Announces New Partnerships
During MWC, Jasper, the cloud-base IoT connectivity and services provider that networking giant Cisco is acquiring for $1.4 billion, has released details about three new partnerships.
Home security and telematics services provider Telular will integrate Jasper’s Control Center IoT service platform with its Telguard home security service and SkyBitz commercial telematics and asset-tracking services. Telguard is a white-label platform that includes wireless devices, communications services and alarm-processing services to home-security providers in North America. SkyBitz enables fleet managers to track the location, motion and cargo status of their vehicles. By integrating Control Center, which includes global cellular subscription services, as well as data analytics and troubleshooting services, into the SkyBitz and Telguard offerings, Telular’s clients in the telematics and security industry will be able to increase their productivity while lowering costs associated with cellular device management, according to Macario Namie, Jasper’s VP of strategy.
Jasper is also providing its Control Center service to POST Luxembourg, the largest mobile operator in Luxembourg. POST manages the cellular connectivity of 1.1 million vehicles manufactured by PSA Peugeot Citroën and operating throughout Europe. By partnering with Jasper, POST was able to migrate all 1.1 cellular subscriptions to the Jasper platform, and is now able to manage those connections, as well as run analytics and connection troubleshoot, through a single consolidated platform.
Thirdly, Jasper announced that it has partnered with Gemalto, a manufacturer of communication and wireless sensor-control modules, and the provider of a subscription-management solution called LinqUs On-Demand Connectivity (ODC). Through the Jasper partnership, Namie says, Gemalto can now sell cellular modules to manufacturers of heavy equipment (or other distributed vehicles or assets that are expensive, long-lasting and costly to modify) and can provision each module to different cellular networks throughout the lifetime of the vehicle or asset by remotely changing the subscriber identity module (SIM)’s profile over-the-air.
“If you have an unlocked cell phone and you want to swap carriers, you can swap SIM cards,” Namie explains. “But if you put a SIM into large piece of machinery, it is prohibitively expensive to swap that SIM” if, say, the customer decides to change networks or the existing cellular service provider goes out of business. By using Jasper’s provisioning service, Gemalto will be able to provide its LinqUs customers with a means of switching cellular service providers for fleets of vehicles or assets without having to dispatch technicians to physically swap out the SIM cards.
Nokia Growth Partners Launches $350M IoT Investment Fund
Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), the venture-capital firm owned and funded by Nokia, announced a $350 million fund that the company will invest expressly to “grow the ecosystem in IoT solutions,” according to a company statement. At MWC, NGP said it will invest the funds in organizations that are working on connected cars, enterprise IoT, consumer-facing products and connected health solutions. It will also invest in “enabling technologies with a focus on capabilities in big data and analytics,” and it is looking for opportunities in the United States, Europe, India and China. This is the fifth fund that NGP has established, bringing the total funding under management to $1 billion.
The fund IV commitment brings NGP’s total assets under management to more than US$1 billion, including US$500 million available for new investments.
New Bosch Sensortec Sensors for Fitness Applications
Bosch Sensortec has announced two new multi-sensor products, BHV250 and BHV160, which it calls sensor hubs. The BHV160, measuring 3 millimeters (0.1 inch) square and 0.95 millimeter (0.04 inch) thick, includes a six-axis inertial measurement unit that contains an accelerometer and gyroscope. The BHV250, at the same thickness and with a footprint of 2.2 millimeters (0.09 inch), contains a three-axis accelerometer. Bosch says that these components, when combined with plethysmographic sensors that use light to measure rate of blood flow, and controlled with Bosch Sensortec’s DSP Fuser Core, can provide detailed fitness analytics via Bosch’s Firstbeat vital analytics software, which is designed to quantify an athlete’s performance and level of recovery post-exercise, by analyzing his or her heart rate variability. These sensor components would be small enough to be integrated into a wide range of wearable devices, according to Bosch. These include eyeglasses, earbuds, clothing, rings, wristbands or footwear, the company reports.
GE Launches Digital Alliance Program, Names New Partners
During MWC, tech giant General Electric (GE) rolled out a new program to promote the use of Predix (its data analytics software platform designed for industrial IoT applications) and GE’s digital services for industrial applications. The GE Digital Alliance seeks to connect systems integrators, telecommunications service providers, independent software vendors, technology providers and resellers to GE’s industrial Internet ecosystem. Alliance members will receive Predix training and certification enabling them to begin building industrial apps based on the Predix platform. GE hopes to have 20,000 developers building on Predix by year’s end. The GE Digital Alliance will also offer participants access to sales, marketing and technical resources.
In addition, GE announced strategic partnerships with a bevy of technology companies, including Intel, Capgemini, Ernst & Young and Deloitte Digital. More details regarding those partnerships are available here.