Page 13 - Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016

multiple operators and other players, including Broadly speaking, IoT refers to the inclusion of
governments, in building new broadband communication and sensing capabilities into a very
infrastructure. Governments often favour sharing wide range of physical objects. In the next decade,
arrangements to promote broadband deployment, technology companies and consulting firms expect
and this chapter examines why and how they tens of billions of IoT devices to be deployed,
encourage network sharing and co-investment, as driven by an ongoing and rapid reduction in
well as the benefits to consumers. It also examines the cost of sensors, processing and networking
why, in some cases, governments have not technologies. Consumers will encounter IoT in
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promoted network sharing. Commercially driven everything from parking meters, thermostats,
network sharing has been prevalent, for example, cardiac monitors, tires, roads and car components,
in the mobile sector -- particularly in countries to supermarket shelves and many other types
with competitive mobile service markets -- but it of physical objects and appliances. IoT-enabled
remains relatively rare in the fixed-service sector. objects and devices can share data directly using
protocols such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, via mobile
In examining options for encouraging and phone networks and specialized radio networks, or
incentivizing sharing, it is clear that sharing over the global Internet.
arrangements are complex and difficult for
operators to set up – a reality reflected in the fact Device manufacturers, network operators,
that many have not survived for very long. This application platform architects and software
chapter considers some reasons why, despite developers are forming a broad ecosystem that is
the cost- and risk-sharing benefits to operators, even now developing IoT services. Data analytics
there have not been more enduring sharing services, often cloud-based, are also important
arrangements. components of the new environment. IoT systems
support a broad range of applications, including
With this in mind, the chapter looks at some monitoring and managing individual health and
ways governments can encourage and provide wellbeing, improving energy efficiency, increasing
incentives for sharing. One favoured approach industrial process quality and reliability, and
is for governments to contribute assets and reducing traffic congestion. They will empower
infrastructure, potentially through public utilities, the development of new products and services –
in co-ventures with private operators. There is especially ones based on pay-per-use charging.
also real benefit in governments’ providing a high
degree of up-front certainty about regulatory IoT devices will have the biggest societal impact
treatment of sharing arrangements for new where they are used together in larger, inter-
network build-outs. connected, systems. At the macro-level, two of the
areas of greatest IoT development and investment
Network sharing and co-investment have a are:
compelling logic if they can be made to work. This
chapter concludes by looking at some new ways (1) “Smart cities” – where infrastructure and
in which network sharing may arise in the future, building systems will improve the efficiency
including through the emergence of so-called and sustainability of a whole range of urban
smart cities. activities; and

(2) Smart power and water grids – which will see
Chapter 3: Regulation and the Internet improved efficiency in the transmission of
of Things power and the monitoring and maintenance of
delivery systems.
This chapter examines the implications of the
Internet of Things (IoT) for individuals, businesses Individual consumers increasingly will see
and societies. In particular, it examines the issues “connected vehicles” with hundreds of separate
that telecommunication and other regulators need sensors, making them safer, more reliable,
to consider as IoT systems proliferate in developed and better able to participate in sophisticated
and developing economies alike. congestion management systems. As populations
grow – and in many cases grow older –
governments can meet health and wellbeing

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