The GSMA Connected Living programme is an initiative to help operators add value and accelerate the delivery of new connected devices and services in the Internet of Things (IoT) market. Afke Schaart, Vice-President Europe for the GSMA, presented some examples of Connected Living to about 50 attendees at the ALDE Congress, before joining a panel discussion with three MEPs.
The IoT offers substantial benefits. For instance, it enables real-time monitoring. With sensors being constantly connected to the Internet, organisations can easily follow how well their systems are working, or not. It also enables more accurate predictions – the continuous flow of information can be analysed for trends and patterns. This can be very useful when water system managers, for example, are trying to predict floods or droughts. In general, the IoT has the potential to save substantial amounts of labour, energy and materials.
In the EU alone, digital health solutions could reduce annual healthcare costs by €99 billion, while adding €93 billion to the region’s GDP. Digital healthcare could save a millions of lives in developing countries and also empower users to manage their own health.
Connected cars also have huge market potential. Recently, the automotive sector took a major step towards enabling the next generation of connected cars by supporting the GSMA Embedded SIM Specification to underpin vehicle connectivity. The GSMA also provides Remote SIM Provisioning technology that will significantly simplify production and will accelerate the growth of the connected car market – a market that can be worth US$150 billion per annum by 2020.
The Internet of Things will also enable smart cities. Ms Schaart showed the ALDE delegates some examples of mobile operators’ smart water management solutions. Operators can combine and quickly analyse data from remote IoT devices monitoring the environment, water resources and infrastructure. That enables them to provide cities and utilities with visibility, control and situational awareness in near real time. In Las Vegas, for example, mobile solutions are enabling leakages in the decades-old water pipes to be detected quickly, which is vital because the desert-based city consumes millions of litres of water a day.
The GSMA also presented examples of how mobile solutions are enabling better transport, crowd and energy management in the UK, Spain, Slovenia and Singapore.
To support the development of the IoT, the GSMA has published IoT Security Guidelines as well as Big Data Privacy Principles.