TechRadar Pro interviewed AT&T's Executive Director for Mobility Marketing, Mobeen Khan, to find out more about the complexities of machine-to-machine technology, its trajectory over the next few years and how industries are already benefitting from using this technology.
How has M2M technology transformed businesses?
MK Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications allow businesses to transfer data from one device to another. This complex technology has taken the business world by storm, helping companies to improve operational and management efficiency across the board.
While M2M is still in its infancy, the expanding industry is already having an impact across a variety of sectors that are investing heavily in this technology, including transportation, industrial production, healthcare, automotive manufacturing and government.
As the popularity for this technology continues to soar within the business community, we are seeing more companies deploy M2M communications to help boost their employees' productivity and efficiency during their daily activities, such as running a diagnostics program, initiating a software update, ordering spare parts, or alerting an on-site engineer.
Which industries are most likely to benefit from this technology?
MK In today's connected world, nearly all industries can benefit from M2M technology - from large global manufacturers who want to track the status of their products, to construction, engineering and agriculture sectors that use M2M devices to monitor expensive equipment.
M2M is making an immediate impact in various vertical industries today. For example, shipment companies are using this technology to track expensive cargo throughout its journey, such as high-value seafood. In this instance, the containers are fitted with an M2M device to monitor location and temperature – ensuring that the company engineers are able to take immediate action if a refrigeration problem does occur along the route.
Similarly, expensive machinery such as tractors and cranes are often fitted with M2M devices to track and monitor location, as well as collect data on the performance of the machinery to help the manufacturer eliminate inefficiencies found in the current models when developing new products.
These tools also offer manufacturers an opportunity to upsell additional services, such as a preventative maintenance service. By collecting data from the inbuilt M2M devices, manufacturers are able to identify any underlying issues in the machine's performance – this not only diminishes the number of breakdowns but it also means that technicians spend less time diagnosing the problem.
The automotive sector has also uncovered the benefits associated with M2M communications, resulting in a new generation of wirelessly connected vehicles that are able to carry out activities such as: remote engine diagnostics, automatic downloading of system upgrades, and permitting vehicle owners to receive navigation and traffic information.
M2M technology has been talked about for years. Why has it taken so long to get going?
MK To the outside world, the M2M industry is perceived as fragmented and siloed. This is because M2M solutions are specific to each industry; therefore it is extremely difficult to develop a uniform solution to fit all the individuals' needs of each vertical industry. On most occasions, M2M solution providers need to develop a customized solution to fit the requirements of that specific market. This has meant that historically there are high entry costs, in turn discouraging some organisations from deploying M2M solutions.
Lowering the entry barrier is key to AT&T's M2M business. In fact, we recently joined forces with some of the technology sector's most influential players, including IBM, Cisco, GE, and Intel to form the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). The vision of the IIC is to manage the collaborative efforts of industry, academia, and government to accelerate growth of the Industrial Internet – reducing this perceived fragmentation in the industry and breaking down the barriers.
Have you seen an increased demand for this technology among your customers?
MK The market has grown exponentially over the last few years, with the GSM Association predicting that global M2M connections will reach 250 million by the end of this year - a staggering increase when compared to the 195 million in 2013.
AT&T's M2M business customers have tripled in the past year with 17.23 million connected devices on our network and AT&T certifying more than 1,800 types of connected devices as of year-end 2013. We have also registered a 61% increase in the number of new M2M connected devices in the first quarter of this year, comparing to the same period last year. International M2M deployments also jumped 27 percent in 2012 and 33 percent in 2013.
What are AT&T's M2M business goals and key focus over the next few years?
MK Our goal is to introduce wireless capabilities into a wide variety of devices – beyond the traditional handsets, with the aim to help businesses reduce their overheads and increase revenue. We are achieving this goal by investing in our ground-breaking innovation center, the M2M AT&T Foundry, located in Plano Texas, further advancing solutions that connect machines in the utilities space, track assets in industries like airline and fleet management, embed communications in industrial machinery, and capture performance data for heavy equipment.
What's in store for M2M technology over the next five years?
MK Over the next five years we will see a sharp increase in M2M revenues. According to global analyst firm, Ovum, the M2M market is set to treble over the next few years with M2M service revenues set to grow to $44.8bn in 2018, from the $13.6bn figure recorded in 2012. Also, by 2019 we are set to see three key industry verticals invest heavily in the technology: energy & utilities, healthcare and manufacturing.
What M2M trends that AT&T is currently coming across?
MK We are increasingly seeing a larger number of enterprises paying more attention to security as opposed to just their ROI and financial figures;
There is also a growing demand in big data analysis. Organisations want to use this data to enable them to achieve better business results, subsequently M2M devices are playing a key role in this data mining process;
We are seeing more and more organisations become key market participants with various automotive manufacturers, such as, GE providing M2M solutions for their customers;
M2M is becoming the hot topic within the business community with an increasing number of technicians and global business leaders taking a keen interest in this topic.
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