allowing them to compare prices and reviews among different products and stores.Customers also can access discounts and advertisements tailored to their known preferences or demographics. Interestingly, some of the information gathered may be on-scene, using camera image analysis and signals from wireless devices such as smart phones. The use of such data gathered about individuals, of course, raises significant questions about privacy, as discussed below.Figure 3.4 and Table 3.1 show the areas where IoT usage is currently receiving the most attention from key ICT stakeholders, identifying possible future developments. At the macro level, two of the areas of greatest IoT development and investment are:• smart cities – where infrastructure and building systems will improve the efficiency and sustainability of a whole range of urban activities; and • smart power and water grids – which will provide similar improvements, efficiencies and cost reductions for key utility infrastructures.Closer to the individual, “connected vehicles” with hundreds of separate sensors will be safer, more reliable, and able to participate in sophisticated congestion-management systems. Health and social services, which increasingly challenge governments around the world as populations grow older, could be significantly enhanced with IoT-based systems used by individuals, care-givers, primary care doctors and hospitals.3.4 Challenges and opportunities Governments and the private sector are continuing to fund significant levels of IoT research and development in areas such as modularity, reliability, flexibility, robustness and scalability33. But the basic capabilities needed for many applications are already well understood and are becoming available through smart phones and other standard platforms34. These devices will also defuse some of the cost issues that have held back 74 Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016 Box 3.2: China’s large-scale M2M deployment China is the world’s largest M2M market, with some 50 million connections by 2014. China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom are all developing large M2M businesses. They have support from the Chinese government, which has identified IoT as an “emerging strategic industry” and is investing USD 603 billion in the M2M ecosystem in the decade leading up to 2020.The energy (including smart grid) and transportation (including freight tracking) sectors have been early adopters, with increasing demand in the automotive, smart city, healthcare, education and retail sectors. China Unicom connects BMW cars to the BMW ConnectedDrive service, providing embedded SIMs and hosting call and data centres. China Telecom’s Mega Eye business supports 800,000 video cameras in 20 different industry sectors. The growth of 4G networks will further support applications such as video surveillance and in-car multimedia services. Hundreds of Chinese cities are deploying smart-city technologies. These include intelligent traffic management systems that adjust signals to ease congestion and help drivers find parking spaces, as well as systems to monitor pollution and noise sources. Mobile healthcare and education services are being developed to reach patients and schools in remote areas. And there are enhanced emergency-response and home health-monitoring applications, with Unicom developing smart ambulances that can send patients’ data ahead to the destination hospital. China Mobile has developed M2M applications to help farmers remotely manage greenhouses and irrigation systems and to assist forest managers in monitoring fire hazards.Source: GSMA, How China is set for global M2M Leadership, June 2014.