Driverless tractors, wind turbines, rat traps. What do they all have in common?

The answer is that they are all being connected to the network at a rapid rate: components of the ever-expanding Internet of Things (IoT) – a booming market set for exponential growth.

They are just three use cases in a rapidly-increasing list that began its life in the GSM era of 30 years ago with, for example, 2G SIM-equipped supermarket freezer thermostats issuing SMS notifications when temperatures rose above optimum.

Today’s powerful 5G capabilities mean a myriad of things can now be enabled to communicate automatically and in real time; sending and receiving information without human intervention in ways which are revolutionising an array of real-world processes and changing the game for businesses of all kinds.

For Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Value Added Resellers (VARs) and System Integrators (SIs), it is a rapidly-developing opportunity that has perhaps been hitherto considered either too niche or too complex to pursue aggressively.

Maybe the one-dimensional functionality and inflexible commercial terms associated with traditional mobile connectivity were mis-matched with the required cost-effective agility, signal strength, and latency performance. Or, just as discouraging, perhaps the channel lacked a vendor capable of supporting an easy to sell, easy to deploy, easy to support IoT offer.

Now, the market is a very different and exciting one.

“Advancements in mobile communication technology means that fast data transfer is now possible over robust, low-latency networks that are reliable and financially appealing – all of that enhances productivity, efficiency and profitability for all parties,” says Steven Lowe, Product Director, Mobile at leading provider of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) Gamma, whose innovative and focused FUSION IoT solution is an eye-catching case in point.

“Ultimately, IoT is about businesses leveraging connectivity to improve the quality of their products and services and to drive revenue and customer loyalty. Partnering with the right technology provider can help them achieve all of that.”

The Gamma offer benefits hugely from its recent acquisition of leading global connectivity provider Epsilon which enjoys long and rich relationships with eight network carriers and which has its own management platform boasting a choice of IoT-only tariffs.

Customers are able to select their carrier and tariff based upon on their own unique requirements such as roaming capability and bandwidth. Also, the joint Gamma/Epsilon future roadmap features an ability for connected ‘things’ to automatically switch between carriers based on changing usage conditions, and a new eSIM to convert any ‘thing’ into a compatible endpoint.

“The FUSION IoT platform combines all of that functionality, agility, and choice in one place,” says Florian Sonntag, Head of Project Management, FUSION IoT at Epsilon. “Also, the tariff adapts to the customer’s project, not the other way around. This flexibility is what makes FUSION IoT stand out.

“Our IoT SIM cards ensure a seamless and customized IoT experience. We can connect eSIMs to multiple networks, enabling us to offer the best connectivity at the best price, for selected countries or worldwide. Users are able to benefit from a wealth of potential applications that increase efficiency, optimize processes, and open up completely new fields of application.

“There are obvious ones such as the tracking of vehicles, and less obvious ones such as a remotely-located wind turbine needing to routinely report that it is functioning correctly or, in the case of one of our customers in Germany, a pest control firm whose connected rat traps notify headquarters when they detect that they have caught something.

“Nobody wants to climb up a wind turbine every few days to change the battery, right? Our narrow band solution means these devices use very little power and can stay up there for 10 years.”

Other fascinating IoT applications include domestic refuse collection lorries fitted with underside cameras which send images of potholes to local authority road repair crews, and a company developing augmented reality glasses for site engineers that provide field-of-view diagnostic and fix instructions plus video conferencing access to Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex for when extra expert help from head office is required.

“Things have certainly moved on since the days of the plastic chicken thermometer in the supermarket freezer,” says Gamma’s Lowe.

“Everyone is living in an increasingly connected world that relies upon next generation technology to drive the outcomes that we and the organisations with which we interact crave.

“IoT has of course been around for many years in its most basic form, but there is now a huge opportunity for businesses and their technology providers to capitalise on the market’s rapid expansion. We are look forward to helping them do just that.”

To learn more about how FUSION IoT can help your and your customers’ businesses leverage the Internet of Things, visit the website.



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