Beecham Research Limited (BRL) and Telit have built a strong partnership over the last years as two dedicated m2m market players. In this section Telit presents the most recent news from the M2M specialist research and analyst firm - welcome to Beecham Snaps!
In this periodic newsletter, Beecham aims to highlight current issues associated with M2M and remote device monitoring and management.
Please find here the latest version.
Snaps #33: CES -- Not Just Tablets and TVs
This month's Consumer Electronics Show included not just endless new tablet computers and Internet-enabled and/or 3D TVs but some M2M-related announcements, as well:
LG Announces M2M LTE Chipsets for Verizon
LG's new WM300 and L2000 chipsets are designed to work with Verizon's 4G network. Considering that over 90% of today's M2M applications utilize 2G networks, specific applications for these new chipsets are left to the imagination. Video surveillance, SCADA and consumer electronics applications are obvious candidates, but new M2M applications that tap high bandwidth capabilities will develop, particularly as competition rises and prices decline.
Verizon's FiOS Home Automation
Speaking of Verizon, the network operator offered more detail on its planned FiOS home automation offerings at CES.
Verizon's home monitoring and control system will be sold as two different starter kits, one emphasizing home security, the other energy monitoring.
Broadband penetration is enabling security firms like iControl to team with cable companies and telcos and take on older wireline incumbents and Verizon is attempting to join this trend, utilizing its installed base of fiber-to-the-home customers. Verizon already offers service bundles -- why not include home automation and security features such as remote access control, surveillance cameras, and motion detectors?
Energy monitoring is tied into smart metering and smart grid initiatives; growth in electric vehicle adoption and related charging systems is on the horizon and will be part of the picture. Verizon's upcoming New Jersey pilot program will include a mixture of "smart" energy and security devices, accessible through customers' laptops, smartphones, tablets, or FiOS remotes.
Xact Technology Introduces New Open-Architecture Platform for M2M Device Development
The idea of an M2M platform, enabling an acceleration of M2M adoption, isn't new. A variety of M2M platforms have been announced over the years, each reflecting the particular strengths of the company making the announcement, whether in hardware, software, networking, or M2M solutions. Heightened network operator focus on M2M has elevated interest in platforms.
With its partners, including Orbcomm, T-Mobile USA, Sierra Wireless, and others, Xact Technology's new M2M platform includes all of these areas: Hardware, software, and networking, plus portals, GPS tracking, and "dual mode" satellite and terrestrial connectivity.
One key to Xact's strategy is the open architecture nature of its new platform. Will this enable an acceleration of M2M application development, expanding the overall market? Consider how quickly a very large development community sprung up to create "apps" for Apple's iPhone and iPad, and then for Android smartphones and tablets.
GE Intelligent Platforms Acquires SmartSignal Corporation
This last announcement has to do with the M2M energy and industrial service sectors, not the consumer sector; it wasn't made at CES but we include it anyway, as it was made while the show was in process.
SmartSignal Corporation specializes in providing remote monitoring and diagnostics solutions to the power generation, oil and gas and other industrial sectors and is a leading provider of predictive diagnostic software and monitoring services used to anticipate, prevent, and avoid equipment failure.
GE Intelligent Platforms operates in two closely related markets: Automation and embedded computing, providing computer boards, systems and software packages for factory automation and systems used in defense, telecommunications, aviation and other markets.
With this acquisition GE Intelligent Platforms joins other GE groups that have already entered the M2M industry, part of a rapidly developing trend that includes increasing numbers of large companies in various industries. Note that another GE group, Energy Services, just announced the acquisition of Remote Energy Monitoring, Ltd., a London-based provider of advanced metering software and hardware technologies in the U.K. and Australia.
Bill Ingle
Beecham Research, Ltd.
The Smart Grid Cost Conundrum
Large-scale smart-grid projects are getting mixed reviews in the U.S., where project costs might impact their viability even in regulatory environments that would appear to encourage them.
For example, on Jan. 5, 2011, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) put the brakes on a smart-grid project begun by the state's largest utility, Xcel Energy. The CPUC slashed by 38% the amount of money that Xcel can charge customers through its rate base to support its cutting-edge SmartGridCity, a pilot program that placed 24,000 smart meters in homes across the city of Boulder. According to Xcel, Boulder's SmartGridCity "is the most technologically advanced, environmentally sound electricity grid anywhere!"
Regulators' mandate that Xcel reduce what it is charging customers across Colorado to help fund SmartGridCity came amid concerns that the project has grown far too costly and will not ultimately provide enough customer benefits to justify its expense. SmartGridCity, initiated in 2008, was supposed to cost a total of $100 million, with Xcel putting in $15.3 million. By 2010, however, Xcel's share of the project had already reached $44.5 million.
This particular smart-grid project relies upon deployment of 1 million feet of fiber-optic cable plus Broadband Over Powerlines, or BPL, technology. Xcel says it also uses wireless equipment based on standard cell phone technologies and frequencies, though only in isolated instances. In-home smart devices such as wireless two-way thermostats and smart plugs connect homes to the smart grid.
The CPUC has ordered Xcel to explain its overall strategy for the smart grid, discuss lessons learned in the Boulder pilot project and forecast future customer-side benefits.
Despite Xcel's struggles in Colorado, purveyors of smart-grid technology in California are licking their lips over Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32), a plan to achieve greenhouse-gas reduction goals.
AB 32 includes a cap-and-trade regulation, passed by the California Air Resources Board in December 2010, which will eventually cover 360 businesses representing 600 facilities. Companies will be required to obtain a sufficient number of allowances (each covering the equivalent of 1 ton of carbon dioxide) to cover their annual carbon emissions. The ARB will provide some free carbon offsets, or allowances, and sell others at auction to companies that need them. The regulation will impact utilities and major industrial sources of greenhouse gases starting in 2012, while distributors of transportation fuels, natural gas and other fuels will be affected in 2015.
Estimates regarding the size of California's emissions market volume have run the gamut from $3 billion to $58 billion by 2020. According to Next 10, which bills itself as a nonprofit nonpartisan research organization, "The projected value of emission permits in 2012, the first year of California's cap-and-trade program, will be $2.5 to $7.5 billion. By 2020, the value will rise to an estimated $7.3 to $21.9 billion."
Many contend that the application of smart-grid technologies will help California utilities and other companies reduce their carbon emissions. Further, it is envisioned that 80% of a company's emissions can be covered using credits from compliance-grade offset projects that are approved by the ARB. Though those projects do not include smart-grid deployments at this stage, there does not appear to be any reason why smart grids could not eventually be approved as offset projects. Offsets earned through the use of smart grids could also be sold to other facilities, thus providing revenue streams to pay off smart-grid deployments.
Yet smart-grid technologies might still be far too pricey for widespread deployment. We've already seen state regulators step in to restrict a utility's efforts to pass smart-grid costs onto its customers, thus raising the bar for what constitutes an affordable smart-grid deployment. And even if smart grids are seemingly supported by a costly cap-and-trade environment such as California's, they still may not generate the sufficient quantity of carbon offsets needed to justify their existence.
Not only is it likely that some government regulators will continue to restrict private entities' efforts to cost-effectively build out and operate smart grids, but market barriers will no doubt limit the use of smart grids even when they are being encouraged by government initiatives.
Tammy Parker
M2M Zone at CeBIT 2011
Join the M2M Zone and M2M Alliance for the 2nd annual conference at CeBIT 2011, Hannover, Germany. The conference will be held on Thursday, March 3, 2011, in the Telematics & Automotive World Hall 7. Technologies, strategies and products will be included under topics such as Navigating the M2M Ecosystem, Automotive and Telematics, M2M Technologies for Enterprise Efficiency, and the Future of Smart Cities. This Conference is Free to all registered CeBIT attendees. See http://www.m2mzone.com/Events/M2M_Pavilion_at_CeBIT2011.asp for additional information.
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