By Anasia D’mello

If I say Sony, I’d bet the first subjects that come to your mind are not healthcare or logistics management. Yet these are two key areas that Sony’s Sweden-based Internet of Things (IoT) team focused on at the recent IoT Solutions World Congress (IOTSWC18) in Barcelona, as Jeremy Cowan reports.

Talking to Lisa Lessing, senior manager, marketing & PR for IoT Business Group Europe, at Sony Mobile Communications, I must admit I wasn’t previously aware of Sony’s position in IoT. But Lessing and her colleague, senior business development manager, Anders Sandwang are quick to point to Sony’s first Bluetooth-enabled watch, produced in 2006.

Anders Sandwang shows Sony’s Mobile Asset Management solution

In 2015 the company’s competence in connectivity and 5G communications, plus a less well-publicised track record in Machine Learning and positioning algorithms, drove the Japan-based electronics giant into IoT research and development.

One of the results is Mobiam, Sony’s mobile asset management solution now in trial with Lund University in Sweden. Cold chain management (CCM) is not only important for businesses and the environment to minimise food waste, it is vital for avoiding the Blame Game that Sandwang says is all too common in the logistics chain when a product arrives in poor condition and no-one can prove where the fault lies.

“Cold chain logistics can involve many truck and van transfers,” says Sandwang, “so we built a prototype (solution) to follow the product, not the vehicle. We created boxes with a modem, GPS (global positioning system), accelerometer and temperature sensors. This is not just a cold chain problem, shippers need it for steel or paper, to know where it is and in what condition. Fleet management systems don’t show how the cargo is and signing a receipt means accepting the goods that may be damaged when opened and inspected.”

The system is now in trials, and Sony used the Barcelona event to show when a freight forwarder picks up the goods. This was a live connection to a real shipment of car parts from Copenhagen, Denmark to Manchester, UK via the ports of Gothenburg and Hull. Alarms are triggered for any cargoes that exceed programmed temperature and humidity ranges, or where boxes tilt, fall or are handled without due care.

For example, Sony also showed a shipment of paper being carried from Finland to Prague in the Czech Republic. If a cargo is diverted, say through the need for urgent truck repairs, Machine Learning (ML) enables the system to anticipate and alert the customer that delivery will be delayed. The customer is informed pro-actively.

Transport security

There is a pressing need within the industry for secure data exchange in important and high value transactions. This, or course, includes transportation and vehicle movements (but applies just as much to IoT communications in Industry 4.0, smart cities, and finance). However, cybersecurity is only as good as the weakest link and some networks don’t enforce security between IoT devices and communication gateways. Sometimes data protection is applied at the gateway, only protecting communications between the gateway and the receiving endpoint.

According to a two-year-old, UK-based company called Crypto Quantique, […]

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By Anasia D’mello

Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) 2018 Huawei showcased its digital platform based on providing new ICT including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data and cloud, enabling city-wide intelligence and sustainable development across the international smart city industry.

Huawei and its global partners demonstrated solutions based on the platform covering municipal management, public safety and environmental protection, as well as smart transportation, smart government, smart education, and smart agriculture. These solutions are designed to facilitate city governance, improve public services, and enable industry innovation and best practices.

During SCEWC, Huawei hosted its global Smart City Summit 2018 with the theme of “Digital Platform Empowers Smart City+” to introduce its digital platform for smart cities. At the Summit, renowned industry associations such as TM Forum and Eurocities, and representatives from Singapore, Gelsenkirchen, Yanbu and Jazan shared their ideas and experiences of smart city development with more than 400 city administrators from around the world.

The Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) 2018 is being held in Barcelona, Spain, the Huawei’s booth is located above.

Building a digital platform to enable smart cities

Digital technologies are becoming deeply embedded in all areas of many of today’s cities including urban governance, citizen life, public safety and industrial development. As a result, a smart city development race driven by the growing global digital economy is taking place around the world.

Smart city adoption has undergone the first stage of breaking down data silos, the second stage of the rise of mobile Internet applications, and the third stage of IoT deployment for collection of mass volumes of city data. It is now at the fourth stage, where cities are improving their management capabilities through AI-enabled data mining, achieving the integration of digital technologies and city governance to promote sustainable city development.

Ma Yue, vice president of Huawei enterprise business group and president of the global sales department of Huawei enterprise business group delivering a keynote speech

Ma Yue, vice president of Huawei enterprise business group and president of the global sales department of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said: “The development of a smart city is a highly complex project. As a world-providing ICT product and solution provider that delivers cloud-pipe-device synergy, Huawei can achieve the integration of cloud, IoT, video and edge computing with AI technologies, connecting the entire city nervous system – the ‘brain’ (command centre), ‘central nervous system’ (network), and ‘peripheral nervous system’ (sensors).”

“This constructs a ‘+AI Digital Platform’ that is open and fuels the digital transformation of cities of the future. Just like an operating system, the platform is compatible with different city sensors, creates a city digital twin, and supports diverse city applications. Huawei’s digital platform is highly efficient and open to facilitate collaboration with ecosystem partners. It also offers top-level design, integration, operations, service application, and other capabilities required for effective smart city development. In the future, Huawei’s +AI Digital Platform will form the smart foundation of more and more cities, promoting sustainable city development worldwide. We look forward to setting smart city […]

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By Anasia D’mello

After months of speculation on the name, the colour, the features and the price, Apple’s September event finally revealed its latest line-up of handsets. Since then, there’s one feature in particular that has continued to generate further chatter in the telecoms industry: the eSIM.

The company introduced dual, virtual SIM capabilities to its new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, says Mikael Schachne of BICS, allowing users to easily switch between different operators and plans thanks to virtual, re-writable profiles. So, no more waiting for a physical SIM to arrive in the post or heading to your nearest phone shop. And no long phone calls to obtain PAC codes.

This move was quickly followed by the announcement from UK MVNO Truphone that it is now offering global eSIM data plans for the new range of Apple smartphones. Accompanied by an app, the data plans allow Truphone subscribers to use a single bundle of pre-purchased data when they travel across 80 countries, thereby avoiding roaming charges. Cue a stream of others launching similar offers.

Subscribers in the EU already benefit from Roam Like at Home (RLAH), but Truphone’s move – which will likely be copycatted in the coming months – will allow a similar, low-cost roaming experience in places like the USA, Australia, Japan and Mexico.

As these developments demonstrate, there’s growing momentum behind the technology. We’re all mobile subscribers, and the benefits to us are obvious, but many readers are also mobile operators. What will eSIM’s impact be on the telco community?

eSIM and RLAH: Welcoming change

First, the fears. These include the fear felt by many operators that the rise of the eSIM will result in a fall in roaming revenues. In the future, subscribers with an eSIM-enabled handset may opt to switch to a virtual profile with a local operator when travelling abroad, instead of choosing a roaming package provided by their primary operator. Operators have already been hit with declining revenues from traditional voice and SMS services, and many are concerned that the eSIM will herald the loss of a crucial, profit-generating sector of their business.

There’s also the fear of ever-more intense competition among operators. The ability to switch almost instantly between operators, some believe, will further erode subscriber loyalty and increase churn. Consumers will be easily lured away by lower-cost subscription plans, many offered by MVNOs who don’t have to manage the kind of overheads traditional players do.

Fear of change is natural in any industry, especially one which seems to be developing and diversifying at such a dizzying pace. But change is also inevitable, and operators must adapt. In doing so. They can also unlock valuable new revenue streams and enhance the customer experience. We’ve already seen this with the EU’s introduction of RLAH last summer. There was initial hesitation from many in the industry, but LTE roaming traffic surged, happy subscribers escaped ‘bill shock’, and many operators realised that encouraging more mobile usage isn’t such a bad thing after all!

New services, new markets, new revenue streams

Second, the opportunities. The growing popularity of eSIM, like RLAH before […]

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By Jeff Baumgartner ‘We’re effectively IoT over the top,’ machineQ exec says.

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