Page 105 - Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016

Some technical standardization work has been share data with -- and receive instructions from -- a
done to enable such roaming services, with some nearby controller, such as a personal computer, Chapter 3
of Apple’s latest iPads including SIMs that make smart phone, or specialized management device.
it easier for users to switch between mobile In that case, a globally-unique address is not
networks. A leading SIM supplier, Gemalto, required.
is supplying reprogrammable SIMs for smart
watches. The first steps have been taken in this Enabling peer-to-peer connections between
direction in the Netherlands, which in 2014 devices can increase the reliability of
allowed SIMs to be issued by organizations other communications, compared with requiring a large
than mobile network operators, such as utilities and complex global network. Peer-to-peer also
and car companies . The GSMA has developed matches the common use case of an individual
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standards for remote M2M device management. discovering and interacting with nearby devices.
Mobile operators, including China Unicom and But where devices must be globally reachable –
Telefónica, are supporting these standards . most likely, via the Internet – a large address space
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is required to individually identify each device.
Greater flexibility and competition would be
possible if large IoT operators were able to act The number of unallocated addresses for the
like mobile virtual network operators – not least current version of the Internet Protocol (IPv4) is
because they could then have wholesale access to extremely limited, but the new version (IPv6) being
mobile networks . The German network regulator, rolled out by ISPs around the world has enough
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Bundesnetzagentur, consulted on the market for addresses for almost any conceivable number
International Mobile Subscriber Identifiers (IMSIs) of devices . The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 has
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in late 2014 . An OECD analyst estimated that if taken longer than expected, and policy-makers
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German carmakers were able to issue their own may need to continue encouraging the transition
SIMs and rent spare capacity on mobile networks, in the medium term. The U.S. government, for
they could save USD 2.5 billion per year through example, has set up a Federal IPv6 Task Force to
lower prices and more flexible contracts . The move all federal agencies from IPv4 to IPv6, also
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Belgian communications regulator BIPT is also prompting the private sector to do the same.
consulting on the national number plan . Many other countries have also set up IPv6 task
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forces to encourage national transitions.
The European Conference of Postal and
Telecommunications Administration’s (CEPT’s) For any IoT identification scheme, there will be
Electronic Communications Committee has trade-offs between performance, scalability,
recommended that SIMs whose IMSI can be interoperability, efficiency, privacy, ease of
remotely updated should be implemented as soon authentication, reliability, flexibility, extendibility,
as possible, and that CEPT countries consider and mobility support. Along with IPv6 addresses,
greater flexibility in assigning Mobile Network the other main identification standards being
Codes (MNCs) to IoT service providers. It has developed are from the International Organization
also encouraged the ITU-T to consider updating for Standards (ISO) and GS1, as well as ITU-T
Recommendation E.212 to explicitly allow this Recommendation E.212 for the use of IMSI for
flexibility, as well as to plan for the future use of machine-to-machine communications . The
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MNCs to support a broader range of services . latter has the advantage of a well-developed
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These changes have been under consideration in authentication, payment and global roaming
ITU-T Study Group 2. framework, operated by mobile telephony
providers, with hardware security based on SIMs.

3.5.3 Addressing and numbering IoT applications using public networks,
particularly mobile networks, will require ITU-T
IoT devices may have globally unique and routable Recommendation E.164 (on telephone numbering
communications addresses (requiring a very large plans) in the short-to-medium term and will
protocol address space, such as that of IPv6). Or, provide a bridge to an all-IP solution in the longer
they could have an address assigned by a gateway term. The relevance of the E.164 telephone
that allows limited inter-network connectivity. Or, numbering plan for IoT applications was further
they could make use of local networks only, to noted by the European Communications Office

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