M2M in the ME
The Middle Eastern market is firmly establishing itself as a leader in M2M development, and du’s latest agreement with PCCW Global will see the two powerhouses collaborate to jointly offer smart home services across the region.
In what is described as part of the “smart evolution”, the agreement brings together Wifi and cloud-based home networking, home automation, home entertainment and surveillance in one solution.
UAE-based du says smart home M2M services “empowers the community to reap the full benefits of this tech-powered society from within their homes”.
US carrier Verizon also struck an interesting M2M agreement this week, after signing a deal with General Electric to provide M2M connectivity and cloud platforms.
The alliance will be tailored towards leveraging GE’s software-enabled machines and devices with added-value services, including remote monitoring and the ability to solve maintenance issues.
The deal is the latest sign of collaboration between telcos and companies from other industries as part of the collaborative drive towards an increasingly connected world.
Evolving Africa
Capacity Africa took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this week, and carriers across the region called for more responsive regulation to enable faster connectivity.
In an ever-evolving event, there has been a notable transition at the conference in the amount of development the region has seen since 2012.
African operators are often the subject of numerous regulatory setbacks, and the carrier community is now demanding more compliant regulation as it bids to catch up with the ever-advancing technological world.
At this year’s event, there was also an increased focus on enabling connectivity in underserved countries, including Malawi and Uganda, and a range of network partnerships were announced at the conference as a result.
This included Liquid Telecom’s deal with NTT Communications to support growing bandwidth demands across the continent.
Africa is expected to have the highest demands for bandwidth in the world over the next few years, and domestic and international carriers are now preparing to serve that growth.
White space is the right place
The UK’s Ofcom revealed it is now ahead with plans to introduce additional spectrum to the market by utilising white space technology.
The idea of utilising spectrum used in other industries has been touted for a while, and seven trials of the technology have now been held in the UK.
As the UK market prepares for the impending growth of the IoT space, the UK is looking at becoming one of the first European countries to provide spectrum through white space.
Spectrum is seen as a valuable commodity across the world, and with the UK showing an innovative and quick response to enabling additional spectrum availability, it could be well-placed to steal a march on rival European countries in the next-generation of connectivity.
Kavit Majithia
News editor
Capacity
