General Electric has pulled Verizon into its Industrial Internet orbit, teaming with the telco to allow GE’s Internet-enabled machines and devices to connect to Verizon’s machine-to-machine (M2M) network and cloud platforms.
Separately, IHS published numbers that focus on smart water meter sales that indicate just how big the Internet Things is likely to get.
GE has been pushing the Industrial Internet idea, it’s version of the Internet of Things or the Internet of Everything. Earlier this year, it allied with AT&T, Cisco, IBM, and Intel to form an Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)
Verizon has not joined the IIC. Rather, the company has agreed to provide connectivity and value-add services for companies that use GE’s Predix Industrial Internet software platform. The companies said that includes remote monitoring, diagnostics and the ability to resolve maintenance issues virtually anywhere in the world.
Many of the GE machines and devices are going to connect using wireless broadband. To that end, GE and Verizon said they are also exploring the possibility of creating a single global SIM (subscriber identity module) for global connectivity.
“The potential for transforming industries – including rail, aviation, energy and healthcare, as well as society as we know it is tremendous, and yet the Internet of Things is a nascent, complex and fragmented market,” said Mark Bartolomeo, head of IoT Connected Solutions at Verizon. “Driving adoption requires broadening alliances across the ecosystem. We look forward to using the power of our network and cloud platforms to enhance our long-standing relationship with GE so that together we can create new business models across the Industrial Internet to meet the increasingly complex demands of customers.”
Separately (but what does that really mean when literally everything is connected to the Internet?), IHS Technology estimated that sales in the smart water meter market would be $1.1 billion level in 2019, roughly doubling the $575 million in sales recorded in 2013.
By 2020, two-way connected devices will make up 29 percent of total revenue for water meters, compared to 18 percent last year. North America is the largest market, with parts of Europe, notably France, growing quickly.
“The benefits of installing smart water meters are growing, and installing this new technology is also becoming easier for utilities that previously haven’t been able to invest in smart meters,” said Michael Markides, associate director for smart utilities infrastructure at IHS. “Utilities that have the capability to purchase smart water meters now are considering implementing smart water networks. These networks will deliver a whole host of new functionality that can be achieved thanks to integrating modern information technology into their daily operations.”
While automating the meter-reading process is still a chief market driver for installing AMI, other applications can be improved with the use of data generated by smart water meters, including eak detection, customer service, hydraulic monitoring and pressure testing.
