A Week in IoT: Smart cities, elephants and manifestos

Funny how things turn out sometimes. I was scheduled to meet Silver Spring Networks‘ exec Brian McGuigan this week at Smart Summit 2017 in London so I thought I’d do my homework on what they’d been up to lately, only to discover that they’d been taken over that day by Itron.

After a quick sharpening of the office pencil I had new questions ready, says Jeremy Cowan, then found that he and other senior execs are (for now, at least) sworn to an omerta-style oath of silence on the subject, all closely monitored by a PR colleague. Hey-ho. So I tried to  ignore the elephant in the room and stuck to the script on smart cities.

“No two smart cities are the same,” says SSN’s sales director, Europe for Smart City Solutions. “No two have the same funding, politics, team organisations, they’re all different. The by-product is that wholesale transformation of a city is impossible, and adopting an open standard is therefore essential. Cities all have different priorities, even if they want similar things like smart parking you can find they may have a local start-up company they want to support. So we think how we can make flexible building blocks.”

Elephant in the room

I ask if Silver Spring is targeting this message at cities or solution vendors.

“Both really,” says McGuigan. “In the last 18 months a number of procurements (cities) have said it must be open to other vendors,” to avoid vendor lock-in. He says it’s forcing a lot of large vendors to open up their offering. “It’s been a mess for small- to medium-sized businesses who struggle to get an ‘In’.”

“Is it still a minority of deployments that are open? ” your man asks.

“McGuigan pauses before commenting, “We may be at a tipping point now, especially in smart lighting which is most common. We had our first smart lighting award in Copenhagen in 2013 for 20,000 lights. In four years we’ve now achieved about 1.5 million lights. We have an open standard lighting philosophy. We build on Wi-SUN which allows us to be part of an ‘organism’.”

Back to the office and I have a new contact to ask about US$830 million Silver Spring’s acquisition. Before I can get a reply there’s a comment from the analysts at IHS Markit in the States. Pablo Tomasi, senior research analyst for smart cities and IoT says, “The acquisition allows Itron to diversify its portfolio into other smart city vertical applications, essential in a market moving … to a multi-vertical solution. To further grow, Itron needs to continue improving on the trend set by SSN of more than 20% of its revenues generated through SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions and managed services. This is also in line with the major IoT trend of transition from product-based solutions to service-based solutions. Such a business model eases the pain-point of high expenses, and generates recurrent revenues which can be expanded with further services.”

“The two companies were targeting similar segments and consequently the acquisition is mostly intended to strengthen Itron’s leading role in the energy and efficiency sector, including both utilities and smart cities,” Tomasi believes.

City as a Platform

These business lessons are now widely understood it seems, for Wednesday brings word that TM Forum, an industry association working for digital business transformation of the communications industry, has brought together 40 cities, regional and government bodies, telecoms operators, technology providers and associations to back its City as a Platform Manifesto. Launched at the SmartCity In Focus event in Yinchuan, China, the manifesto sets out 10 key principles to bring the private and public sectors together when deploying digital city platforms.

(We’ll bring you more on this on Monday. Ed.)

The manifesto has been signed by 40 cities including Atlanta, Belfast, Chicago, Dublin, Las Vegas, Leeds, Limerick, Liverpool, Medellin, Miami, Milton Keynes, Tampere, Utrecht, Wellington and Yinchuan. Other backers include the European Commission; technology and communication service providers such as Orange, Tele2, and NEC; and other institutions such as CABA, FIWARE Foundation, Fraunhofer, Future Cities Catapult, and the OASC.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow OR @jcIoTnow

 

RECENT ARTICLES

Semtech enhances global connectivity with NTN support in HL78 modules

Posted on: March 29, 2024

Semtech Corporation has announced the integration of non-terrestrial network (NTN) support into its HL series LPWA modules, specifically the HL7810 and HL7812. This significant advancement showcases a leap forward in enabling uninterrupted global connectivity even amidst the most challenging conditions.

Read more

Enhance EV charging performance with cellular connectivity

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily growing their market share at the expense of internal combustion engine vehicles. The growth is fuelled by several factors. Perhaps most importantly, prices for EVs have started to drop as competition in the industry is intensifying. New players and models are emerging, prompting several established EV makers to lower their

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more