Originally, this technology was known as M2M – machine to machine – communications. When the concept of M2M first appeared, it often looked a technology ahead of its time, with issues surrounding cost, data rates and general applicability. But, slowly, M2M has gained ground.
Early adopters of M2M had varying degrees of success with the technology; most were simply retrofitting connectivity to equipment. But the latest version of Vodafone's M2M Barometer – a global market survey – says half of M2M adopters are using the technology to enable 'entirely new' business models.
In the survey of 650 executives from 16 countries working in seven industry sectors, 90% say M2M is relevant to their company, 27% have an M2M project in place and 37% have projects ready to go live in the next two years.
M2M is no longer just about 'hooking things up': responders say they're doing things like adding new business lines and applying 'big data' approaches to the data being collected. In fact, 83% of companies say M2M has improved their competitive advantage.
But, in order to take advantage of the opportunities offered by M2M, businesses want high speed, guaranteed two way connections that can handle a lot of data. They want long range connection and they want all of this at low cost. So, where the mobile operators were originally thinking 2G networks for M2M, they are now having to offer M2M over the 4G network.
It's been a slow burn, but it does seem like M2M is, finally, breaking through.
