Lately, I am being pitched about a lot of prioritization on the wireless networks. Strangely, in my discussions about M2M, it is rarely about the network, its always about the application and the ROI. 

While a carrier’s mantra is “if you build it they will come” the mantra for the enterprise is, “If I need it, I will find the answer to my deployment needs.”

Case in point, yesterday at Regulatory 2.0, Jim Kohlenberger (News - Alert) of JK Strategies pointed out that we have a rover on Mars that is talking to Houston on a 34MB connection, and yet we can’t get exposure from Manassas to Washington at 2MB.

Clearly we have a disconnect. However, the reality is that space has probably been one of the ultimate M2M locations. While Captain Spock called space the final frontier, Craig Ventor would tell us that exploring oceans may impact the medical industry far more than space. I would contend that for M2M the story may be spectrum strategies. 

Ubiquity needs put you in the carrier’s hands, and many of the carriers have been great performers. Companies like Lighsquared who provide a mix and match of satellite and LTE (News - Alert) may need to match more global needs.

In the M2M space, on a campus or in a municipality, point-to-point and unlicensed solutions may be the answer. In our discussions about what we are doing at the next white space SuperWiFi summit, the discussion about cognitive radio was clearly not on their minds. 

I expect that cognitive radio solutions will get to the market faster with M2M than with White Space.

At the M2M Conference in Austin, I expect that we will have at least one case study that will show a solution that has multiple radio strategies involved; the clustering of sensors on a local solution, the use of the satellite operators for transport and the management of the solution as an app on a smart phone.

Like security, M2M applications require a layered approach. I am looking for speakers to join me on a conference call about these kinds of implementations in June. If you are interested please contact me.

I am looking forward to exploring the frontier together.