This week, 20,000 industry leaders from around the globe gathered at GSMA’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona to share innovations, challenges, and opportunities around mobile, wireless, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. This year’s umbrella theme is “Connected Impact” and this week it’s been great to connect with people, and for KORE there has certainly been impact.
5G still remains a hot topic as it promises to unlock time-critical IoT use cases due to lower latency (faster network access), more bandwidth, and higher reliability. COVID gained a lot of headlines in two forms: the digital workplace or remote worker and connected health use cases like remote patient monitoring. It was timely that KORE kickstarted the week at Mobile World Congress with a presentation to the King of Spain and senior dignitaries on a customer called Swoop Aero, who delivers mission-critical medical assets via drones to remote areas of the world. Powered by KORE global resilient connectivity offerings, including satellite and cellular, KORE was able to seamlessly integrate with their drone logistics, launching everywhere from ground to sea.
In its infancy, IoT was a very straightforward process. Solution building was very transactional. Customers would come to KORE needing SIMs and connectivity, and KORE would provide 2G/3G connectivity. The same 2G/3G that could power a car, could power a parking meter. Now, the idea of the same connectivity powering a connected vehicle solution as a smart parking meter is unthinkable. KORE sponsored a partner power hour presented by Romil Bahl (President and CEO), Marco Bijvelds (SVP, EAP), and John Chambers (VP, EAP) and delved into the ever-evolving nature of technology and IoT.
Customers have become more sophisticated in their needs, their use cases, and their own IT/IS systems, and the IoT ecosystem can’t always be looked at so simply. Customers are looking for more than the management of SIMs, they are looking for more integrated solutions to the other aspects of the IoT ecosystem — namely, the smooth deployment of devices and the security of the network. In the panel session, “Enabling digital transformation of industries in the 5g era,” hosted by Sylwia Kechiche, principle analyst at GSMA Intelligence, Romil Bahl joined a panel of industry leaders discussing “how ecosystem players can help simplify and scale deployments, leverage partnerships and address the challenges facing enterprises on their digital transformation journey in the 5G era.”
While the last decade was one of innovation and discovery in IoT, implementation wasn’t nearly as high as technology leaders had predicted. Many challenges proved to be a deterrent to widespread adoption, including costs, a vast ecosystem, and connectivity limitations. Despite the challenges, IoT has moved beyond the hype and become a reality for enterprises across various industries throughout the world. Adoption of IoT is on the rise, and those who have already adopted have become increasingly reliant on their IoT solutions. In the “The Vodafone Barometer Report”, 76% say their IoT projects are already mission-critical — and some are finding it hard to imagine business without it. Additionally, 8% say their “entire business depends on IoT.” In this year’s IoT Mobile Summit, a panel of industry leaders, including Marco Bijvelds, discussed Mobile IoT Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) Roaming & Global Partnerships.
We are in an age of IoT sophistication and customers require IoT solutions that deliver a comprehensive, step-by-step, end-to-end deployment strategy and solution portfolio. It’s imperative to choose the right partner to help with solution deployment, lifecycle management, and optimization, plus navigating the plethora of connectivity offerings, selecting the right IoT device for your use case, and products that need to be constantly evolving with the market and customer needs. KORE is uniquely positioned to deliver IoT solutions, connectivity, and analytics that address customers' sophisticated IoT needs.
Watch the video, “KORE: The Future of IoT,” to learn more about what you can expect in the next decade of IoT.
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