ATIS released a data-sharing framework for smart cities, it announced Thursday. The framework includes recommendations on how to securely share data among governments, trusted agencies, private sector and app developers. "While Smart Cities infrastructure is essentially the engine for innovative applications, data will act as the fuel, accelerating cities toward their intended citizen-centric vision,” said CEO Susan Miller.
ON Semiconductor introduced a multi-sensor shield and expanded software support for its IoT development kit. The kit is designed to accelerate development time and deploy IoT solutions for applications including smart home and wellness and industrial wearables, said the company Monday.
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said the bank will partner with the GSMA and wireless carriers worldwide to harness big data from the IoT to “help end extreme poverty and unlock new drivers of economic growth.” The initiative will “unlock new insights from anonymized data collected by mobile network operators through IoT devices and aggregate data from smartphone use,” GSMA said Monday. “It will also call on industry leaders, development partners and governments to work together in building a strong enabling environment for the IoT while protecting personal privacy.”
Murata will develop cellular IoT devices using Altair Semiconductor’s dual-mode CAT-M1/NB1 chipset and STMicroelectronics’ STM32 MCU and ST33 Secure MCU, it said Thursday. Potential applications are in healthcare devices, wearables and Global Navigation Satellite System trackers, it said. Solutions will include support for Amazon Web Services and other cloud-based service providers, it said.
Mobile network capacity could struggle to keep up with demand in New York and other big world cities unless regulators make more spectrum available and ease deployment of small-cells infrastructure, GSMA reported Thursday. By 2025, 48 percent of traffic demand may go unserved in ultra-dense urban areas, it said. GSMA predicted mobile demand will grow by more than 50 percent in major cities by 2025 as 5G and IoT expand. Mobile operator spending would have to triple to meet demand, but that’s not sustainable under current conditions, it said. GSMA recommended releasing affordable spectrum, facilitating deployment of fronthaul and backhaul infrastructure, reducing siting costs, OK'ing network sharing agreements, streamlining small-cell deployment and harmonizing power density limits with internationally recommended limits.
Worldwide spending on smart cities technology is forecast to reach $80 billion this year, expanding to $135 billion in 2021, International Data Corp. reported. Intelligent transportation, data-driven public safety and resilient energy and infrastructure are expected to generate most smart cities spending, said IDC Tuesday. Intelligent traffic and transit and fixed visual surveillance are forecast to lead spending globally, followed by smart outdoor lighting and environmental monitoring, it said. Intelligent traffic and transit will be top priorities of smart cities investment in the U.S., Japan and Western Europe, it said.
April 18 is the deadline for comments on the National Institute of Standards and Technology draft report on IoT standardization, the agency said Wednesday. The report cites several IoT applications -- connected vehicles, consumer, health, smart buildings and smart manufacturing. It said there isn't a universal IoT description, but it has two foundational concepts: Components are connected by a network providing the potential for a many-to-many relationship, and some have sensors and actuators that let the parts interact with the physical world.
Qualcomm announced a set of trusted software services, Qualcomm wireless edge services, for enterprise and industrial IoT customers. The technology is said to securely provision, connect and manage long life cycles of billions of intelligent wireless devices through cloud platforms. It's expected to be available on select Qualcomm chipsets -- initially the MDM9206, MDM9628 and QCA4020 -- with Snapdragon platforms to follow, said the company Wednesday. Qualcomm wireless edge services will facilitate integration, processing, analysis, learning and trusted exchange of information with wireless edge devices and unlock new use cases, services, ecosystems and business models, it said. Security is rooted in the chipset hardware, which will help enterprise, industrial and cloud providers provision and manage large amounts of connected 4G and 5G devices in a “trusted, security-rich and scalable manner,” it said. The software also supports a new chipsets-as-a-service business model, Qualcomm said.
The size and likely competitiveness of the U.S. narrowband IoT connectivity market likely means Dish Network will end up being sold to a third party, Citi analyst Jason Bazinet emailed investors Wednesday. He said the market will be about $10 billion in annual revenue by 2025, and Dish likely will be competing with four existing wireless carriers for a slice. The company didn't comment.
A key question on the emerging IoT is whether government needs to get involved to ensure devices are secure, Shane Tews, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, blogged Tuesday. AEI has an event next week on the subject, including with members of Congress: communicationsdaily.com/calendar. IoT devices are by design heavily automated, which is part of what makes them desirable, Tews said. “The importance of securing IoT systems has been highlighted by cyberattacks that have used IoT objects as attack vectors to wreak havoc on internet transmissions. By getting a foot in the door on any of these devices, attackers can gain access to a consumer’s entire networked system. It’s not just the devices but also the networks they ride on.”