Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is seeking response on the growing importance of machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity.
A consultation paper from TRAI said the latest entrant to the digital space is the machine-to-machine communications. The connected devices deliver innovative services by utilizing the M2M communication technologies.
TRAI wants stakeholders to respond with comments on the consultation paper – ‘Spectrum, Roaming and QoS (quality of services) related requirements in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications’ – by November 15 and counter-comments by November 29.
Berg Insight says the number of cellular M2M terminals will be growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1 percent to 5.7 million in 2020 from 2.7 million in 2015. These are standalone devices intended for connecting M2M devices to a cellular network. These include primarily general-purpose cellular routers, gateways and modems that are enclosed in a chassis and have at least one input/output port. Trackers, telematics devices and other specialised devices are not part of this report.
North American and Asian vendors dominate the global cellular M2M terminal market. Cradlepoint, Sierra Wireless and Digi International are the largest vendors in North America, whilst SIMCom is the main manufacturer on the Asian market. Combined, these four vendors generated close to $290 million in revenues from M2M terminal sales during 2015. This is equivalent to more than 50 percent of the global market.
Other vendors include CalAmp and MultiTech Systems in the US; Xiamen Four-Faith and InHand Networks in Asia; HMS Networks, Advantech B+B SmartWorx, NetModule, Matrix Electronica, Eurotech, Gemalto, Dr. Neuhaus and Option in Europe and NetComm Wireless in Australia.
M2M communication has potential to bring substantial social and economic benefits to governments, citizens, end-users and businesses through increase in productivity and competitiveness, improvements in service delivery, optimal use of scarce resources as well as creation of new jobs.
In May, 2015, the government had come out with ‘National Telecom M2M roadmap’ with the purpose of boosting development of M2M based products and to provide efficient citizen-centric services in India.
It said M2M and Internet of Things devices will have very big societal impact once they are put together in larger, interconnected systems.
Their biggest market will be smart cities wherein cities are expected to perform smartly in order to efficiently utilize the available infrastructure to improve efficiency and sustainability of a whole range of urban activities.
The consultation paper asked
What should be the framework for introduction of M2M Service providers in the sector? Should it be through amendment in the existing licenses of access service/Internet Service Provider license and/or licensing authorization in the existing Unified License and UL (Virtual Network Operators) license or it should be kept under Other Service Providers category registration?
Do you propose any other regulatory framework for M2M other than the options mentioned above?
The paper also sought opinion about the quantum of spectrum required to meet the M2M communications, keeping a horizon of 10-15 years.
In case permanent roaming of M2M devices having inbuilt foreign SIM is allowed, should the international roaming charges be defined by the Regulator or it should be left to the mutual agreement between the roaming partner?
