Rights-of-way issues and finding affordable fronthaul and backhaul remain the biggest concerns of communications infrastructure companies, PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein said Tuesday at the group’s HetNet (heterogeneous networks) Expo in Los Angeles. The IoT is expected to add $1.7 trillion to the world economy and connect more than 50 billion “things” by 2020, Adelstein said, according to a news release. “PCIA continues working closely at the federal, state, and local levels of government to address all obstacles in an effort to streamline wireless deployments,” he said. Regulation is moving in the right direction, said Adelstein, a former FCC commissioner. The FCC has agreed to exclude some facilities from the federal environmental and historic review process and recognizes that “subjecting a small cell facility to excessively burdensome regulatory processes makes little sense,” he said. “With investments taking place on both the vendor and carrier sides, HetNet opportunities are opening up. From smart city ventures, in-building and hospitals, to public safety mandates and mid-tier market opportunities -- it’s now at the point where many wireless businesses are probably searching for the right opportunities to pursue.”

Voxx International’s recent $20.2 million purchase of a majority stake in biometric security supplier EyeLock is important to Voxx because the IoT “has made security a critical part of daily life, demanding more efficient means of protecting identities and assets,” Voxx CEO Pat Lavelle said last week on an earnings call. EyeLock boasts a portfolio numbering more than 100 patents, which includes items “with technology that can potentially create the most powerful cybersecurity solution available as well as logical and perimeter access solutions,” Lavelle said. With its acquisition of a controlling interest in EyeLock, Voxx now controls “all of their IP and substantially all of their assets,” he said. “Their technology and business model enables them to scale across multiple markets and there was no doubt in our minds that iris biometrics will be one of, if not the, chosen method for authentication in the future,” he said. By the end of the decade, iris authentication “will become commonplace” for consumers, financial institutions and government and defense contractors, he said. Moreover, automakers and tech companies “may look to integrate iris authentication into routers, switches, set-top boxes, PCs and mobile devices,” he said. “Blue chip partners and global brands” are evaluating or have already adopted EyeLock's iris authentication technology “as a means to improve system and infrastructure security and for embedded technology applications,” he said. EyeLock also is in talks “with leading PC, tablet and laptop makers about embedding their technology in these devices,” he said.

Cooperation among government entities and public safety officials, as well as interconnectivity between devices and programs, are critical for the success of IoT technology used in the development of smart cities, speakers said during a panel Tuesday at the Smart Cities Week conference. Interoperable sensors are one of the main IoT devices used by cities, panelists said, and their uses range from identifying traffic patterns to predicting earthquakes and aiding in disaster recovery. Jimmy Chou, Geographic Information Systems Research Center director at Feng Chia University in Taiwan, said several systems of integrated sensors are used in Taiwan to measure earthquakes and coordinate disaster preparedness protocols, and to predict areas most in danger of flooding during typhoons. But when using IoT technology, such as connected sensors that are operated by several separate entities, Chou said, the information gained from the devices won't be as effective unless the groups are able to share data and ensure their systems are interoperable. "Every bureau and sensor has to be smart enough to communicate with each other," Chou said. "Every member has to be connected ... [and] I think that's [really] the focus of the IoT." Gaurav Garg, Santa Clara, California, chief information officer, said he and his team use the IoT, through interconnected sensors and connected devices, to aid public safety officials in high-density areas during professional sporting events. Sensor data is accessible by several city departments, and select traffic information gleaned from sensors is made available to the public, Garg said. Certain social media data is also collected by the city and the results of an analysis are sent to mobile connected devices used by public safety officials to anticipate and address potential hazards, he said. The success of IoT technology used to enhance and develop smart cities hinges nearly entirely on interdepartmental cooperation and the availability of data across multiple sets of platforms and stakeholders, Garg said. "Collaboration is [often] the biggest accomplishment." Monday, the White House said it will make $160 million in grants for smart cities (see 1509150025 and 1509140054).

4G Americas released an executive summary on 3rd Generation Partnership Project Release 13, describing the key technical features designed to further move the industry toward 5G. Monday's release comes “just as the mobile industry begins discussion and development of another generation … of mobile technology to face unprecedented challenges: accommodating skyrocketing traffic growth amid a spectrum shortage, escalation of the Internet of Things and a vision for network transformation that will create an all-IP environment,” 4G Americas said. The summary provides a broad overview the various features under development for HSPA+ and LTE-Advanced, the group said.

Netherlands-based GreenPeak Technologies announced a Smart City-assisted parking application with Dusun Electron to address growing parking problems in large Chinese cities such as Beijing, where 5 million registered vehicles compete for 1.5 million available spaces. GreenPeak and Dusun’s smartphone app guides drivers to available parking spaces using criteria including fee and the walking distance between destination and parking space, said the companies last week. The app works with wireless sensors in parking spaces, which transmit floor and row information for available spaces through a gateway to the cloud. GreenPeak developed the sensor technology, the radio chip and the networking technology, and Dusun created the cloud infrastructure and Smart Parking application. A $25 gateway can connect up to 200 sensors, which start at $15 per unit, said Dusun.

The FBI warned of possible cybercrime opportunities that have emerged due to an increased number of IoT devices. “Unsecured or weakly secured devices provide opportunities for cyber criminals to intrude upon private networks and gain access to other devices and information attached to these networks,” the Thursday alert said. “Devices with default passwords or open Wi-Fi connections are an easy target for cyber actors to exploit.” Among recommendations the FBI offered consumers are to: isolate IoT devices on their own protected networks; disable UPnP on routers; consider whether devices are ideal for their intended purpose; purchase devices from manufacturers with a trusted security record; update devices with security patches when available; change default passwords and open Wi-Fi connections; and be aware of device capabilities, especially if the device is used for medical purposes, is capable of remote operation or transmits data.

The growth in the number of smartphones will continue, AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie told the CTIA conference Thursday in a keynote. “There’s tons of gas in smartphones,” he said here in Las Vegas. “We have tons of opportunity to continue to grow.” Mobile video, the connected home and the IoT will all be part of the growth, he said. “Our future in this industry in our opinion is about mobility and video -- people having the ability to take their content, view it anywhere, anytime, on any device they want.” AT&T earlier this year said 50 percent of the usage on its network is video, he said. Smartphones aren't the entire market, Lurie said. “I want you to think about tablets, I want you to think about cars, I want you to also think about the enterprise marketplace.” AT&T’s buy of DirecTV is just part of the story as the company looks at video, he said. The connected home is the first thing many customers want to talk about, he said. But it's unclear what the connected home will look like, he said. “If I would have asked all of you in 2000 what do you want your smartphone, what would you have told me?” Lurie asked. “You didn’t know. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. We didn’t know what an app store would do.” The IoT is “very, very hard to define because it’s everything,” he said. “Every single thing in our lives is going to be connected.” Some estimates are that the IoT market could be made of 50 billion devices, using a wide variety of protocols. “We have really entered a new era in our business,” said Lurie. “The smartphone has taken us to a new place.” No one leaves their home without their smartphone and it doesn't matter what it will be called. "There's going to be a device that runs your life," said Lurie.

With broadband to be the backbone of the IoT, NCTA increasingly is paying attention, creating a new section of its website dedicated to it. The page, unveiled Wednesday, gives a layman overview of the IoT, as well as links to a variety of resources such as IoT TED talk videos and media reports on various aspects. "To have a working Internet of Things, America needs a broadband network that’s capable of securely and dependably handling our increasing data needs," wrote NCTA Senior Director-Digital Strategy John Solit on the group's blog. "That’s why we’re working so hard to grow our broadband networks and expand the availability of super fast Wi-Fi."

BlackBerry joined the National Cyber Security Alliance as a board member, the group said in a Wednesday announcement. The alliance described itself as a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on helping “digital citizens stay safer and more secure online.” Consumers and businesses “increasingly rely on mobile technology, but they may not fully understand the security and privacy considerations that come with untethered, unlimited access to information," the alliance said. BlackBerry brings a “unique perspective” to the alliance, it said. Other tech companies that sit on the alliance board include AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Symantec and Verizon, it said.

The Thread Group chose Elarm as the latest quarterly winner of its Innovation Enabler Program. The Elarm home monitoring system is based on specialized sensors placed around the home and uses Thread to create a mesh network that’s said to boost resiliency, security and energy efficiency for the battery-powered sensors, Elarm said. Under the program, Elarm will work with the Thread Group as an active contributor with the goal of its system becoming one of the first Thread-certified IoT products. The benefit of Thread is that it provides a standard way for IoT products to communicate, Elarm said.