The machines are marching into our lives. Image: Andrey Popov/Shutterstock
A little observed fact to emerge from the most recent ComReg quarterly report is that machine to machine connections (M2M) – vital to the internet of things – now stand at 12pc of all mobile subscriptions in Ireland.
The recent ComReg quarterly report for Q2 of 2016 showed that 606,683 subscriptions are machine to machine (M2M).
The data showed that M2M is the fastest segment of the Irish mobile market and is growing at 20pc per annum.
“This is just over the mobile networks and does not include propriety technologies like Sigfox or LoRa,” observed John Holland from Telecomconsult.
“It also does not include internet of things (IoT) connected over Wi-Fi or other ISM band technologies.”
Growing IoT beyond the hype curve
In Q2 2016, Three Group had the largest market share of M2M subscriptions at 50.1pc, followed by Vodafone with 43.9pc of market share. Eir Group Mobile had the remaining 6pc of M2M subscriptions.
Vodafone had the largest market share in terms of business subscriptions (52.9pc) followed by Three Group (38.5pc) and Eir Group Mobile (8.5pc). Other authorised operators accounted for the remaining 0.2pc.
According to Holland, the pace of growth of M2M subscriptions shows the IoT market is moving beyond the hype curve.
“Gartner seems to put IoT close to the peak of inflated expectations,” said Holland.
“Based on these statistics, I would think that the technology is somewhere towards the end of the trough of disillusionment or even heading into the plain of enlightenment.”
