Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are a critical piece of this ecosystem. They provide the connectivity required between mobile ‘things’ and the apps that communicate with people and their devices. The Connected Car is just one area that many telcos are either already involved in or exploring aggressively. Automotive manufacturers are striking deals with network operators to deliver wireless IoT services to their customers - and they are using this as a distinct competitive advantage.
For example, Chrysler has partnered with Sprint to deliver Velocity, the company’s first comprehensive in-car infotainment and telematics architecture and General Motors with AT&T to sell 4G LTE-connected cars. Add global coverage to the services offered and you will understand the relevance of multi-partner roaming agreements, since customers expect to be connected seamlessly whilst in their car receiving the same level of service without paying extra roaming fees, whether they’re traveling to the grocery store or to the other end of the country. This multiplicity of partnerships required to deliver a single seamless service to the end customer is what has been recently defined as B2B2x (Business-to-Business-to-x) environment.
With the IoT’s high transaction numbers and lower margins, revenue assurance needs to be tighter than ever, to ensure that new IoT services are not just popular, but also profitable. Adding to this complexity are all the various state and country regulatory and security issues, plus the added risk of fraud and abuse as new unprotected devices and connected things enter the market. To illustrate this point, SIM cards were recently stolen from ‘connected’ traffic lights in the streets of Johannesburg. Not only did this cause real safety issues for drivers when the lights stopped working, but thieves inserted them into mobile devices and racked up huge international phone bills, creating hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
While the Internet of Things brings tremendous opportunities, it also brings new challenges; quickly becoming a complex tangle of settlement and back office issues that many of today’s revenue assurance and fraud management departments aren’t paying the relevance these risks require. There is a growing need for enhanced procedures and systems that are capable of tracking and monitoring the growing complexities of the IoT. These systems need to intelligently analyze large quantities of data from across an organization, helping to negate or minimize operational or business inefficiencies and manage complex partnerships and roaming agreements.
Many service providers are treating the IoT as a separate business unit, with its own back office systems to manage the unique challenges. Having the right systems in place will be critical for creating and sustaining a successful, and profitable, IoT business because with IoT, no single element stands alone.