mobile world congress 2016files.ctctcdn.com/e6acc78d401/dc938ea2-e4f3-4733-820a-9a...being mobile at...

The Connected ConversationVolume 2 Issue 2 March 2016

Mobile World Congress 2016

This Yearrsquos Key Take Awaysp 5

Samsung Bridges the Gapp 4

The Big Dog Emergesp 8

MWC 2016 in Videop 3

Come See Usp 11

Barcelona Fun Factsp 7

110 E Houston St 7th Floor San Antonio TX 78205 2104010051 httpwwwJbrehmcom


2

News Flash Another Round of Consolidation in IoT

Cisco Makes a Big Move in IoT

Cisco has been busy this past year pulling in 11 acquisitions in 2015 and has now acquired Jasper as a massive cherry on top Previously the tech giant had yet to make an impressive move in IoT choosing instead to focus on small-ish in-house projects but its acquisition of Jasper in February speaks to Ciscorsquos overall intent it means serious business Serious business indeed as the company makes the first billion dollar acuqisition in IoT bringing in Jasper for a whopping $14 billion Consolidation of the market may be happening sooner than expected which may prove timely as the industry is currently drowinging in platform companies This move will allow Cisco to settle into the IoT space with 3500 new customers and more than 25 service providers across the globe and is expected to close by end of Q3

ATampT Helps Create the Connected WheelchairATampT has teamed up with Permobil a Swedish medical device manufactuer in order to create connected wheelchairs This ldquowireless wheelchairrdquo comes with an accelerometer pressure sensors and battery level monitors These devices will help detect if the individual has fallen out of the wheelchair or if the wheelchair has tipped over Additionally the chair can be remotely monitored for maintenance and send error alerts directly to the manufacturer While there has yet to be a set release date ATampT Vice President Mike Troiano said that the wireless wheelchair is an example of ldquousing innovative technology to solve real-world problems and in this case potentially improve quality of liferdquo



3

MWC 2016 in Video

Barcelona was hopping as more than 100000 people flocked to the city for GSMArsquos annual Mobile World Congress the worldrsquos biggest event for the Mobile industry By Joyce Deuley

Topics at the conference included 5G privacy and security the ldquogigabit societyrdquo andmdashof coursemdashIoT For a quick recap of MWCrsquos biggest highlights check out the following links

MondaymdashMonday kicked off with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who discussed the companyrsquos plans to continue to connect the ldquounconnectedrdquo Then several industry leaders called for us to bring about the ldquogigabit societyrdquo which will encourage both competition and investment for a healthy future for all Other highlights include Ericsson and ATampTrsquos connected water device the democratization of money and press conferences held by both Sony and Ericsson

TuesdaymdashInnovation combined with technical excellence was reflected in Formula 1rsquos session with world champion Lewis Hamilton and Qualcomm who discussed the benefits of leveraging technology in vehicles Tuesday also focused on security and what that will mean in a completely connected world while Morpho CEO Anne Bouverot shared her thoughts on the use of selfies in biometric security

WednesdaymdashWrapping up MWC 2016 Xiome launched new Mi5 smartphones equipped with Qualcommrsquos latest chip Snapdragon 820 and many asked if this was the decade for the Industrial Internet as we move beyond the Consumer Internet Additionally MasterCard Unicef and others encouraged a continued push for digital inclusion worldwide

Best Highlights MWC 2016mdashThese are the weekrsquos top picks for what was going down at Mobile World Congress 2016

Image Source Transferbridge



4

Samsung Bridgesthe Gap

At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Samsung Electronics introduced its new connected car solution Samsung Connect Auto By Randy Field

At first glance the Samsung Connect Auto solution appears to be a me-too offering The hardware is an aftermarket OBD II dongle containing an LTE modem a Wi-Fi hotspot a GPS receiver and a computer ATampT will exclusively offer the device in US starting in Q3 2016 Orange will offer the solution in Europe

The physical dongle is where similarities to other aftermarket solutions stops Samsung Connect Auto is a true IoT platform with Samsung controlling a large portion of the stack including its own KNOX for security

an SDK and Tizen OS Samsung appears to be moving toward including purpose built apps using Tizen OS in all of its communication devices Cellphones cameras and other devices that use Tizen OS can communicate locally while vehicles using iOS and Android OS are stuck in the Cloud Samsung can operate in both worlds local for faster communication of critical information and the Cloud for other applications

The genius in Samsungrsquos approach is the simultaneous release of its Connect Auto ecosystem Partners include Amdocs ATampT AXA Blink by Agero China Unicom Cisco Crawford amp Company Ericsson Europcar HERE IBM Jasper Oberthur Technologies Openbay Orange Tantalum and Willis Towers Watson This ecosystem allows Samsung to offer traditional enterprise fleet management preventive maintenance and driver scorecard apps ndash plus consumer apps such as UBI and closest repair centers in one platform

In The Driverrsquos Seat

By using Tizen as its operating system Samsung is creating an alternative to Applersquos iOS and Googlersquos Android Tizen is lighter and more developer friendly too Should Samsung truly deliver breakthrough apps it will be in the aftermarket driverrsquos seat

While it is too soon to predict the success of Samsung Connect Auto in the crowded connected car space Samsung appears to be leading the pack as a true IoT solution



5

This Yearrsquos Key Take Aways from MWC

For me most of the IoT comings and goings at Mobile World Congress were a bit parochial and left me wanting to see moreBy James Brehm

You could scarcely round a corner at the largest conference in Mobile without the acronym IoT showing up in front of you And while much noise around IoT was being made it was quite apparent that some companies still havenrsquot figured out their strategies Perhaps some of these companies could use some advice from Rudi Guilliani when he said ldquolsquochangersquo is not a destination just as lsquohopersquo is not a strategyrdquo

Key Take Aways

Prior to arriving in Barcelona we began wagering on attendance Would it exceed 85000 this year 90000 It ended up being much larger 101000 attendees total Despite the record number of attendees all converging

on Fira amidst a public transportation strike getting tomdashand throughmdashthe venue seemed as easy as years gone by The best place to catch a cab was Hall 8 though the bathrooms were the best hidden piece of infrastructure

Did the GSMArsquos Innovation City resemble a city at all It was hard to tell because almost everywhere you look was the Huawei logo I think all of Barcelona was a Huawei booth While ATampTrsquos area contained a sexy Audi R8 connected car as well as a display of ATampT Digital Life in the connected home many companies in the area made me wonder what they were doing there Were there any first responders nearby because I nearly twisted my ankle on all the weird ramps steps and walkways as I tried to dodge all of the fleet-footed GSMA badge-scanners lurking about But if I thought the GSMA badge-scanners were obnoxious that was nothing compared to those at the Ericsson booth I had to scan my badge more times to enter Ericsson than to get into the convention center And donrsquot even think about wearing the Huawei lanyard in there

Did Nokia really need a stand so big What kind of animals did it have inside that picket fence The only thing there (aside from a couple of RANs and a few meeting rooms) was a ginormous screen And didnrsquot the company divest the handset business to Microsoft Similarly did anyone get a chance to see Nissanrsquos booth Was Nissan admitting it is just another connected device OR did it atttend MWC in an attempt to tell carriers that they are now just plumbing for the car



6

HP had a massive wall of meeting rooms Most of the time they were empty Hmmmhellip

Noise It was everywhere There was that really tall guy from Samsung who kept honking the carrsquos horn from his handset I know most companies use the Cloud and this was device to device but after that much sangria and jamoacuten it was practically murder on the ears

Was the MasterCard booth trying to tell me that my refrigerator needs a SIM card Or is it going to be like a mini-bar and charge me for products I remove

Was GSMA trying to make a political statement to put the LPWAN guys in Hall 8 The Sigfox and LoRa Alliance booths were separated by Thingworx which may be the only ecosystem big enough to bring the two together

It is a good thing I upgraded my international data plan What other wireless conference in the world has such poor Wi-Fi Was it the access point naming or lack of 3GPP standard that makes me question which G will be the final G

Final Thoughts

While there was a ton of activity around 5G IoT and all things Mobile it seems as if the industry at large is having difficulty finding a solid path to tread As a whole there is a push towards universal connectivity but therersquos no clear winner or idea of how to pull it together for true success Perhaps with recent acquisitionsmdashCiscoJasper and KOREWylessmdashthe begining of the next big roll up in IoT will make the road ahead much clearer

Final Q4 2015 Resultsfor Top Four US MobileCarriers

This week we released a short summary of the Q4 results for Mobile Carriers Herersquos a quick rundown of our findings

ATampT At end of year ATampT had 262m in cellular IoT connections with its total connection growth reaching 12m in Q4 alone

Verizon The companyrsquos final revenue for the year reached $690m including $200m in Q4 Its EOY revenue increased by 18 compared to 2014

Sprint The carrier grew its IoT base by 700k connections in the last quarter bringing the total number of connections to 94m at end of year

T-Mobile USA While growth slowed in the final quarter resulting in only 300k connections T-Mobile ended 2015 with more than 53m connections

To read more on 2015 results for carriers worldwide read our blog HERE



7

Fun FactsBarcelona

Being Mobile at Mobile World Congress 2016With a hundred thousand people pouring into the city for MWC 2016 it is no surprise that getting around can be difficult but the subway strike could have made things almost impossible Thankfully Barcelona has a pretty decent cab system that helped attendees get around town without too much trouble But the question has to be asked ldquoBarcelona wherersquos Uberrdquo

Food for ThoughtWhile attendees at MWC 2016 had to get some work done there were plenty of opportunities to hit the town after the show Itrsquos a good thing then that folks in Barcelona prefer to eat pretty late Here are some of the best eateries to consider for next yearrsquos conference

PerBacco Pata Negra La Tasca Obama Palo Santo LaDentelliere Restaurante and Con Gracia

Jamoacuten ibeacutericoldquoIberian hamrdquo also called pata negra ldquoblack hoofrdquo is a type of cured ham produced in Spain and Portugal According to Spainrsquos Denominacioacuten de Origenrsquos rules on food products jamoacuten ibeacuterico may be made from black Iberian pigs or cross-bred pigs as long as they are at least 50 ibeacuterico and these pigs must feed upon a diet only consisting of acorns and light grains Because of the regulations and quality of ham produced the cost in the US through specialty importers is upwards of $96 per pound



8

The Big Dog Emerges

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sit down with Kore CEO Alex Brisbourne and hold a quick conversation about Korersquos pending acquisition of Wyless Group Holdings and all operating subsidiariesBy James Brehm

Backed by investors which include private equity firm ABRY Partners Kore has been on a mighty tear as of late acquiring Jazz Communications and RACO Wireless prior to making the move on Wyless in an all-cash deal which is scheduled to close in Q2

Therersquos a new sheriff in town

We believe that this acquisition makes Kore the largest MVNO and managed service provider outside of a handful of tier 1 MNOs with an estimated 6M connections and $170M USD in revenue Only the largest of MNOs have more connections than Kore now has and few have the revenue as many of these MNOs have built their business units on the foundations of cheap wholesale connectivity deals On the MVNO front only Aeris challenges the new Kore in terms of connected endpoints however we believe Aeris lags significantly in terms of total revenue

What the acquisition means for partners and customers

Korersquos acquisition of Wyless is also important for other reasons First the Wyless platform Porthos is currently

being used as the CDP of choice for T-mobile USA At a recent Morgan Stanley conference T-mobile CFO Braxton Carter hinted at an increased focus on M2M as the company loosens its focus on wholesale business with traditional handset focused MVNOs

With direct connections to ATampT Vodafone Verizon T-mobile (and DT) Telefonica and others Kore has positioned itself as a go-to company for connectivity It caught the vision of the eSIM years ago and through its partnership with Gemalto would like to leverage the management benefits of the eSIM to be seen as a legitimate option to tier 1 MNOs

Next having significant assets outside of the US Wyless helps Kore with its bid to become a legitimate powerhouse outside the United States In addition to having acquired Aspider in the Netherlands and Wyless TM Data which is one of the few non-MNOs with success in the Brazilian market this moves Korersquos geographic footprint from an estimated 87 in North America to a more balanced 77

Inside the numbers

Every week for the past 23 weeks someone has asked me about the ldquoWyless bookrdquo being on the street While I never saw the book our team has spent time doing a vertical market breakdown of the Wyless customer base We then made assumptions around values of each of these deals Additionally we factored in platform-only contracts churn rates and several other variables And while we cannot comment on things under NDA

Image Source Cutedogblogcom



9

with outside parties our own analysis shows that Kore probably spent somewhere near 35x or 4x revenue for Wyless

With close to a million connections in the US and another 300000 outside the US we believe Wyless had revenues in the $40-50M range That puts the acquisition somewhere near $150-160M

What does the acquisition mean for the industry

For several years now Irsquove listened to Kore CEO Alex Brisbourne wax poetically about investment in tools for clients or the reasons behind certain acquisition targets And quite frankly some of it confused me But combined with the direction of some of the competitors in the space what Irsquom now seeing is the transformation of a company from a transaction-based connectivity-driven model to a Software-as-a-Service model which includes professional services and connectivity

I think one needs to ask himself how much different is this than the vision at Jasper And given Ciscorsquos recent Jasper acquisition for $14B plus retention bonuses which had a 15+ multiple wellhellip

Who could potentially benefit the most from a Mega-MVNO like Kore

Itrsquos no secret in the US that Cable MSOs have been ramping up their business sales efforts Large MSOs want to be able to provide full service offerings to enterprise customers first with voice and data connectivity then with a full suite of security and other managed services

Look at Comcast Businessrsquo acquisition of Contingent and subsequent announcement of ramping up their enterprise sales team Comcast wants to fight on equal terms with industry heavyweights ATampT and Verizon for business customers What is not certain is when they will want to grab a slice of the IoT pie or how

By providing carrier-agnostic wireless services through an eSIM MSOs could potentially white-label wireless services and be a strong sales channel for Kore

Whatrsquos next Is this enough

When we pull the covers back and look at the new Kore under the light of day while Brisbourne and team should be applauded for taking the risk to pull off three fairly complicated acquisitions within two years some fairly obvious areas for improvement exist First gaining greater share outside of the US market specifically in Asia Itrsquos true Kore will be able to slowly grow the Aspider business in Europe and now has a strong foothold in Latin America however Asia is a wide open bonanza and we believe the way to the market is through acquisition or a major OEM partnership

Next BSSOSS transformation for wholesale partners Itrsquos no secret that SIrsquos and Distributors want to participate in the market they just donrsquot know how to do it correctly Bifurcated billing remote activation providing bill-on-behalf offerings which include a complex rating engine are all must haves Even companies like Verizon are looking outside their own OSSBSS platform to third parties to provide these services to and on behalf of their VSPVPP partners Kore could differentiate itself here

And finally development and deployment help While Kore acquired a great development team via the Position Logic assets of RACO it currently needs to grow its developer organization Based in the Dominican Republic the development team has a few dozen really strong M2M developers but probably not sizable enough of a team to put a dent in some of the industrial and enterprise IoT projects being rolled out by the ldquoFORTUNE-aterdquo few When I spoke with Brisbourne

Image Source Kore Telematics



10

he assured me that he was pouring resources in that direction but they also need partners like Solstice Mobile that has a team of over 250 geeks writing code on some fantastic IoT projects today

Finally deployment help is a must Almost no one is thinking about having an army of assets on the ground looking to connect X to Y in order to gather data from nodes 17 18 23 and 25-96 While ATampT and Verizon have armies of mini-vans on the streets with their logos plastered on the side to light up a smart-home who hooks up a well-head monitoring solution in Cotulla TX How does Ernie Jones Trucking in Truman MN get hardware connected to its trucks to provide both Track and Trace and Hours of Service capabilities And what happens if these assets needing connectivity are in 5 states 3 countries and 8 time zones Who are you going to call Geeksquad

Final Word

Kore + Wyless looks to be an exponentially better company than Kore without Wyless Brisbourne is putting together a complex company designed to provide enterprise with what they need But as far as hersquos come over the past two years much more could be done in order to build a true global powerhouse Look for more investment and a little tweaking from his team in the coming months And for you gamblers out there Irsquoll set the overunder on another acquisition in less than 7 months



11

CCA April 13-15 NashvilleThe Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) is putting on its inaugural event for North American Carriers that will focus on strategies and innovative technologies There will be dynamic IoT marketing business development and technical discussion tracks

Entelec April 26-28 HoustonEntelec will be putting on itrsquos 88th Spring Conference in April targeted at communication and control technologies for pipeline natural gas and electric utilities companies Donrsquot miss out on the latest in oil and gas technologies

CABA April 26-28 San DiegoThe Continental Automated Buildings Association is putting on its annual conference in San Diego and will focus on promoting advanced innovation for home and building automation technologies

If you are interested in meeting with James Brehm amp Associates at IoT Evolution or Mobile World Congress please contact infojbrehmcom in order to set up a meeting date and time

Come See us At

James Brehm amp Associates (JBA) is a consulting and marketing intelligence firm that provides project-based and retained strategic advisory services to technology companies worldwide With a firm focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Big Data Analytics JBA provides actionable insight and direction to a wide range of organizations including Communication Service Providers Hardware Manufacturers Software Vendors OEMs Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms Through projects on market size and share competitive intelligence product development go-to-market strategy and client-specific consulting services we help companies reach their maximum potential httpwwwjbrehmcom

If yoursquod like to continue to receive The Connected Conversation please email our Director of Content Joyce Deuley at joycejbrehmcom or call (210) 401-0051



2

News Flash Another Round of Consolidation in IoT

Cisco Makes a Big Move in IoT

Cisco has been busy this past year pulling in 11 acquisitions in 2015 and has now acquired Jasper as a massive cherry on top Previously the tech giant had yet to make an impressive move in IoT choosing instead to focus on small-ish in-house projects but its acquisition of Jasper in February speaks to Ciscorsquos overall intent it means serious business Serious business indeed as the company makes the first billion dollar acuqisition in IoT bringing in Jasper for a whopping $14 billion Consolidation of the market may be happening sooner than expected which may prove timely as the industry is currently drowinging in platform companies This move will allow Cisco to settle into the IoT space with 3500 new customers and more than 25 service providers across the globe and is expected to close by end of Q3

ATampT Helps Create the Connected WheelchairATampT has teamed up with Permobil a Swedish medical device manufactuer in order to create connected wheelchairs This ldquowireless wheelchairrdquo comes with an accelerometer pressure sensors and battery level monitors These devices will help detect if the individual has fallen out of the wheelchair or if the wheelchair has tipped over Additionally the chair can be remotely monitored for maintenance and send error alerts directly to the manufacturer While there has yet to be a set release date ATampT Vice President Mike Troiano said that the wireless wheelchair is an example of ldquousing innovative technology to solve real-world problems and in this case potentially improve quality of liferdquo



3

MWC 2016 in Video










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5




Key Take Aways







6






Final Thoughts











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Fun FactsBarcelona







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The Big Dog Emerges










Inside the numbers





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10



Final Word




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Come See us At





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MWC 2016 in Video










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Key Take Aways







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Final Thoughts











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Fun FactsBarcelona







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The Big Dog Emerges










Inside the numbers





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Final Word




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Come See us At





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Key Take Aways







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Final Thoughts











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Fun FactsBarcelona







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The Big Dog Emerges










Inside the numbers





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Final Word




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Come See us At





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Key Take Aways







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Fun FactsBarcelona







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The Big Dog Emerges










Inside the numbers





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Final Word




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Come See us At





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Final Thoughts











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Fun FactsBarcelona







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The Big Dog Emerges










Inside the numbers





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Final Word




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Come See us At





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Fun FactsBarcelona







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The Big Dog Emerges










Inside the numbers





9

















10



Final Word




11





Come See us At





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The Big Dog Emerges










Inside the numbers





9

















10



Final Word




11





Come See us At





9

















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Final Word




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Come See us At





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Final Word




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Come See us At





11





Come See us At



mobile world congress 2016files.ctctcdn.com/e6acc78d401/dc938ea2-e4f3-4733-820a-9a...being mobile at...

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