The IoT made great strides in 2016, but AT&T sees even bigger strides in 2017, with the telecom operator laying out five major trends in the space.
Editor’s Note: With 2017 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from across the mobile telecommunications space on what they expect to see in the new year.
Imagine this scenario: A car slides on black ice and crashes into a delivery truck. A smart traffic sensor signals the accident to send an emergency response team and alerts a drone to fly over the area and provide additional network coverage for commuters stuck in traffic. Meanwhile, the truck’s sensor automatically sends an update that it will be late to its delivery location. And somewhere, a pizza shop receives data that because of extensive traffic, commuters getting home late will order more pizza and so the shop calls in additional staff to handle the uptick in demand.
Is this possible? It can be. By integrating multiple data sources, the information pulled from “internet of things” sensors will become richer and inform new insights. This will enable enterprises to create never before-thought-of use cases and cater to consumers with growing expectations for on-demand action, personalization and enhanced service.
Here are five major IoT trends and predictions for 2017.
1. Global IoT will be impossible without a network scaled to match, and a robust, multilayer integrated network approach will open new global IoT opportunities.
2. Companies both large and small will look to enterprise-level leaders to respond to their needs for a variety of connectivity solutions. Large-scale, optimized IoT solutions will enable companies to more efficiently manage assets and improve operations.
3. IoT will continue to blur between business-to-business and business-to-consumer solutions so that technologies advance both enterprise and consumer interests. Enterprises and innovators will join forces to manage and even evolve customer expectations, allowing them to do more than they ever thought possible.
4. Through a proliferation of sensors virtually everywhere, millions of new data points and thousands of use cases will be developed. As a result, the rate of data collection will increase algorithmically, not linearly, making more information available than ever before.
5. IoT security will remain a top concern in the upcoming year. Items like network-connected wearables or smart coffee pots will become of increasing interest to hackers due to the often limited attention paid to security in their development cycles.
