The Fourth Industrial Revolution: It's Impact on Our Lives

We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society.
The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.
There are three reasons why today’s transformations represent not merely a prolongation of the Third Industrial Revolution but rather the arrival of a Fourth and distinct one: velocity, scope, and systems impact. The speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance.
The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. And these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing.
Already, artificial intelligence is all around us, from self-driving cars and drones to virtual assistants and software that translate or invest. Impressive progress has been made in AI in recent years, driven by exponential increases in computing power and by the availability of vast amounts of data, from software used to discover new drugs to algorithms used to predict our cultural interests. Digital fabrication technologies, meanwhile, are interacting with the biological world on a daily basis. Engineers, designers, and architects are combining computational design, additive manufacturing, materials engineering, and synthetic biology to pioneer a symbiosis between microorganisms, our bodies, the products we consume, and even the buildings we inhabit.
Challenges and opportunities
Like the revolutions that preceded it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life for populations around the world. To date, those who have gained the most from it have been consumers able to afford and access the digital world; technology has made possible new products and services that increase the efficiency and pleasure of our personal lives. Ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product, making a payment, listening to music, watching a film, or playing a game—any of these can now be done remotely.
In the future, technological innovation will also lead to a supply-side miracle, with long-term gains in efficiency and productivity. Transportation and communication costs will drop, logistics and global supply chains will become more effective, and the cost of trade will diminish, all of which will open new markets and drive economic growth.
At the same time, as the economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee have pointed out, the revolution could yield greater inequality, particularly in its potential to disrupt labor markets. As automation substitutes for labor across the entire economy, the net displacement of workers by machines might exacerbate the gap between returns to capital and returns to labor. On the other hand, it is also possible that the displacement of workers by technology will, in aggregate, result in a net increase in safe and rewarding jobs.
We cannot foresee at this point which scenario is likely to emerge, and history suggests that the outcome is likely to be some combination of the two. However, I am convinced of one thing—that in the future, talent, more than capital, will represent the critical factor of production. This will give rise to a job market increasingly segregated into “low-skill/low-pay” and “high-skill/high-pay” segments, which in turn will lead to an increase in social tensions.
In addition to being a key economic concern, inequality represents the greatest societal concern associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The largest beneficiaries of innovation tend to be the providers of intellectual and physical capital—the innovators, shareholders, and investors—which explains the rising gap in wealth between those dependent on capital versus labor. Technology is therefore one of the main reasons why incomes have stagnated, or even decreased, for a majority of the population in high-income countries: the demand for highly skilled workers has increased while the demand for workers with less education and lower skills has decreased. The result is a job market with a strong demand at the high and low ends, but a hollowing out of the middle.
This helps explain why so many workers are disillusioned and fearful that their own real incomes and those of their children will continue to stagnate. It also helps explain why middle classes around the world are increasingly experiencing a pervasive sense of dissatisfaction and unfairness. A winner-takes-all economy that offers only limited access to the middle class is a recipe for democratic malaise and dereliction.
Discontent can also be fueled by the pervasiveness of digital technologies and the dynamics of information sharing typified by social media. More than 30 percent of the global population now uses social media platforms to connect, learn, and share information. In an ideal world, these interactions would provide an opportunity for cross-cultural understanding and cohesion. However, they can also create and propagate unrealistic expectations as to what constitutes success for an individual or a group, as well as offer opportunities for extreme
The impact on business
An underlying theme in my conversations with global CEOs and senior business executives is that the acceleration of innovation and the velocity of disruption are hard to comprehend or anticipate and that these drivers constitute a source of constant surprise, even for the best connected and most well informed. Indeed, across all industries, there is clear evidence that the technologies that underpin the Fourth Industrial Revolution are having a major impact on businesses.
On the supply side, many industries are seeing the introduction of new technologies that create entirely new ways of serving existing needs and significantly disrupt existing industry value chains. Disruption is also flowing from agile, innovative competitors who, thanks to access to global digital platforms for research, development, marketing, sales, and distribution, can oust well-established incumbents faster than ever by improving the quality, speed, or price at which value is delivered.
Major shifts on the demand side are also occurring, as growing transparency, consumer engagement, and new patterns of consumer behavior (increasingly built upon access to mobile networks and data) force companies to adapt the way they design, market, and deliver products and services.
A key trend is the development of technology-enabled platforms that combine both demand and supply to disrupt existing industry structures, such as those we see within the “sharing” or “on demand” economy. These technology platforms, rendered easy to use by the smartphone, convene people, assets, and data—thus creating entirely new ways of consuming goods and services in the process. In addition, they lower the barriers for businesses and individuals to create wealth, altering the personal and professional environments of workers. These new platform businesses are rapidly multiplying into many new services, ranging from laundry to shopping, from chores to parking, from massages to travel.
On the whole, there are four main effects that the Fourth Industrial Revolution has on business—on customer expectations, on product enhancement, on collaborative innovation, and on organizational forms. Whether consumers or businesses, customers are increasingly at the epicenter of the economy, which is all about improving how customers are served. Physical products and services, moreover, can now be enhanced with digital capabilities that increase their value. New technologies make assets more durable and resilient, while data and analytics are transforming how they are maintained. A world of customer experiences, data-based services, and asset performance through analytics, meanwhile, requires new forms of collaboration, particularly given the speed at which innovation and disruption are taking place. And the emergence of global platforms and other new business models, finally, means that talent, culture, and organizational forms will have to be rethought.
Overall, the inexorable shift from simple digitization (the Third Industrial Revolution) to innovation based on combinations of technologies (the Fourth Industrial Revolution) is forcing companies to reexamine the way they do business. The bottom line, however, is the same: business leaders and senior executives need to understand their changing environment, challenge the assumptions of their operating teams, and relentlessly and continuously innovate.
The impact on government
As the physical, digital, and biological worlds continue to converge, new technologies and platforms will increasingly enable citizens to engage with governments, voice their opinions, coordinate their efforts, and even circumvent the supervision of public authorities. Simultaneously, governments will gain new technological powers to increase their control over populations, based on pervasive surveillance systems and the ability to control digital infrastructure. On the whole, however, governments will increasingly face pressure to change their current approach to public engagement and policymaking, as their central role of conducting policy diminishes owing to new sources of competition and the redistribution and decentralization of power that new technologies make possible.
Ultimately, the ability of government systems and public authorities to adapt will determine their survival. If they prove capable of embracing a world of disruptive change, subjecting their structures to the levels of transparency and efficiency that will enable them to maintain their competitive edge, they will endure. If they cannot evolve, they will face increasing trouble.
This will be particularly true in the realm of regulation. Current systems of public policy and decision-making evolved alongside the Second Industrial Revolution, when decision-makers had time to study a specific issue and develop the necessary response or appropriate regulatory framework. The whole process was designed to be linear and mechanistic, following a strict “top down” approach.
But such an approach is no longer feasible. Given the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s rapid pace of change and broad impacts, legislators and regulators are being challenged to an unprecedented degree and for the most part are proving unable to cope.
How, then, can they preserve the interest of the consumers and the public at large while continuing to support innovation and technological development? By embracing “agile” governance, just as the private sector has increasingly adopted agile responses to software development and business operations more generally. This means regulators must continuously adapt to a new, fast-changing environment, reinventing themselves so they can truly understand what it is they are regulating. To do so, governments and regulatory agencies will need to collaborate closely with business and civil society.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will also profoundly impact the nature of national and international security, affecting both the probability and the nature of conflict. The history of warfare and international security is the history of technological innovation, and today is no exception. Modern conflicts involving states are increasingly “hybrid” in nature, combining traditional battlefield techniques with elements previously associated with nonstate actors. The distinction between war and peace, combatant and noncombatant, and even violence and nonviolence (think cyberwarfare) is becoming uncomfortably blurry.
As this process takes place and new technologies such as autonomous or biological weapons become easier to use, individuals and small groups will increasingly join states in being capable of causing mass harm. This new vulnerability will lead to new fears. But at the same time, advances in technology will create the potential to reduce the scale or impact of violence, through the development of new modes of protection, for example, or greater precision in targeting.
The impact on people
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, finally, will change not only what we do but also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it: our sense of privacy, our notions of ownership, our consumption patterns, the time we devote to work and leisure, and how we develop our careers, cultivate our skills, meet people, and nurture relationships. It is already changing our health and leading to a “quantified” self, and sooner than we think it may lead to human augmentation. The list is endless because it is bound only by our imagination.
I am a great enthusiast and early adopter of technology, but sometimes I wonder whether the inexorable integration of technology in our lives could diminish some of our quintessential human capacities, such as compassion and cooperation. Our relationship with our smartphones is a case in point. Constant connection may deprive us of one of life’s most important assets: the time to pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversation.
One of the greatest individual challenges posed by new information technologies is privacy. We instinctively understand why it is so essential, yet the tracking and sharing of information about us is a crucial part of the new connectivity. Debates about fundamental issues such as the impact on our inner lives of the loss of control over our data will only intensify in the years ahead. Similarly, the revolutions occurring in biotechnology and AI, which are redefining what it means to be human by pushing back the current thresholds of life span, health, cognition, and capabilities, will compel us to redefine our moral and ethical boundaries.
Shaping the future
Neither technology nor the disruption that comes with it is an exogenous force over which humans have no control. All of us are responsible for guiding its evolution, in the decisions we make on a daily basis as citizens, consumers, and investors. We should thus grasp the opportunity and power we have to shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution and direct it toward a future that reflects our common objectives and values.
To do this, however, we must develop a comprehensive and globally shared view of how technology is affecting our lives and reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments. There has never been a time of greater promise, or one of greater potential peril. Today’s decision-makers, however, are too often trapped in traditional, linear thinking, or too absorbed by the multiple crises demanding their attention, to think strategically about the forces of disruption and innovation shaping our future.
In the end, it all comes down to people and values. We need to shape a future that works for all of us by putting people first and empowering them. In its most pessimistic, dehumanized form, the Fourth Industrial Revolution may indeed have th
e potential to “robotize” humanity and thus to deprive us of our heart and soul. But as a complement to the best parts of human nature—creativity, empathy, stewardship—it can also lift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny. It is incumbent on us all to make sure the latter prevails.

Article obtained directly from the www.weforum.org website
Author: Klaus Schwab is Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum
Image: An Aeronavics drone sits in a paddock near the town of Raglan, New Zealand, July 6, 2015. REUTERS/Naomi Tajitsu

T-Mobile CEO promises to 'disrupt' IoT market, blasts AT&T's 'low-value' IoT business

T-Mobile US President and CEO John Legere shared some of his predictions for 2016, including what he calls "real implementations" around IoT and more practical uses for drones.
"In 2016, we'll start to see some real implementations practiced, probably along the lines of what Google's done with Nest -- which is, of course, available at T-Mobile. These 'just-works' appliances will be smart enough and helpful enough that consumers will catch on and start to adopt IOT devices in meaningful numbers," Legere said. "And, for T-Mobile, when we see these markets get ready for prime time, we'll be ready to disrupt them just like we've done to the carriers everywhere else!"

Interestingly, he also said T-Mobile already uses drones to help inspect remote cell towers, and it's going to be a space to watch as drones go from hobby/toy to "super, amazingly useful." The buzz about drones "has been crazy" ever since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said Amazon would deliver packages with drones, which was around two years ago. "While drone delivery to my front door hasn't quite happened (and the FAA is sorting out the rules), I do think we are going to see some amazing new uses of drones in 2016," he said.

Drones increasingly are showing up at wireless industry trade shows and playing a role with operators. Some experts say LTE is particularly well suited for drones because unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as they're also called, range too far away to rely on Wi-Fi alone and transmit too much data to use 3G.

Legere promises the coming months are going to be big once again for the un-carrier movement. "It's really clear to me that the US wireless industry will start to look very different after this year, and though we may not see this industry completely change in 2016, I believe we will see more trends and paths for what may come in 2017 and beyond," he said.


Sourced from: FierceWireless

Technologies That Could Transform Our Future III

Nanomaterials

Nanomaterials are materials made from particles of nanoscale dimensions, produced by nanotechnology. The components measure below 100 nm. What makes nanomaterials unique are their two key characteristics. Their structure and their quantum effects.
By their structure, nanomaterials have a greater relative surface area than other materials. This attribute can improve certain properties in target objects, such as the strength or the reactivity of that material. Also, the quantum properties of nanomaterials can affect the electrical, magnetic or optical performance of the “target” objects.
Current applications include healthcare (in targeted drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and diagnostics), electronics, cosmetics, textiles, information technology and environmental protection.

Terahertz Imaging

 

 Terahertz Imaging is a new technology that can detect explosives previously considered invisible. It also “helps” in path-planning for self-driving cars. Terahertz Imaging “extends sensory capabilities by moving beyond the realm of the human body.”
The market for Terahertz devices is predicted to grow by 35% per year annually and to reach more than $1.4 billion by 2020.

3D Printing

3D Printing is the process of “making” a three-dimensional object from a digital file on your computer using a special printer. The materials can be anything, from plastic to metal and more recently human cells. The 3D printed objects that we use in healthcare, fashion, auto industry, etc.
The process is simple. The printer is laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is ready. You can see the layers as thin, horizontal, cross-section slices that “put” on the top of each other.
3D printing is already a $3.1 billion industry. An industry that is growing by 35% each year. An industry that will “touch” all future aspects of life.

Advanced Energy Storage And Generation

It is not only technology that needs power. The need for advanced energy storage technologies is growing as a direct consequence of new tech developments and population growth.
At the same time, we see significant improvements in battery technology in the last five years. Green products are more incentivised, cold fusion power could become viable by the end of 2020 and solar energy has also developed considerably.



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Technologies That Could Transform Our Future II

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most exciting and the most controversial field in robotics. Still, roboticists are nowhere near achieving a human level of artificial intelligence. Saying that, in recent years we have made a lot of progress with the “limited” AI.
The ideal AI would be a replica of the human thought process. Like a man-made machine but with human intellectual abilities. This man-made machine will have the cognitive level to learn anything, just like us. Will have the capacity to reason, the ability to use a language and the power to formulate original ideas.
Soon, robots will play a larger role in our daily lives. In the coming decades, robots will “leave” the industrial environment and scientific labs and come into our daily lives. A slow “migration” that will start with utilitarian robots like autonomous vacuum cleaners, kitchen helpers, etc. A gradual process. If you like, just as the computers took over our homes in the 80’s.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) allows an “enhanced” view of the “real-world.” Reality enhanced by augmented elements, generated by a computer and its sensors such as sound, video, graphics, etc. A “reality” that is digitally manipulable and interactive.
AR is seen as one of the emerging technologies to reshape the way we interact with the physical world and the gaming industry. Companies like Google, Facebook and even META are looking to capitalise on the AR market. We expect the AR consumer products to hit the markets starting with the first quarter of 2016.

Biotechnology

 

In simple terms, biotechnology is tech based on biology. Thanks to biotechnology we now understand bio-molecular and cellular processes that help us develop products that improve our planet and our lives. Biotechnology is still at the beginning despite reaching new heights in the recent years. It is true, we now have plants that are drought-resistant, crops with better vitamin content and salinity tolerance.



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Technologies That Could Transform Our Future

 


The world is changing fast. Faster than any time in the human history. For example, it took fifty years for one in four Americans to adopt electricity. Then, it got faster. It took thirty years for the same number to utilise the radio. Then, even faster. Eighteen years to “accept” the colour TV. Thirteen years for mobile phones and only seven for laptops. That’s how fast the world is changing.
We see changes in education, agriculture, energy, banking, health and even in fashion. There is hardly anything that is not changing. But all these changes would not be possible without one “ingredient”. The technology.

Big Data

 Big Data is a term used to describe datasets whose size is beyond the ability of traditional databases. However, the term’s meaning has changed over the last few years. Nowadays, “Big Data” not only refers to the data you create but also the “tools” that capture, store, and analyse this data.
Cisco expects “Big Data” to become a $50 billion industry by 2020 and investments in “Big Data” to reach between $75 to $85 Billion by 2020.
It sounds a lot. But there is a reason behind. The Internet of Things, wearable tech and all related industries are dependent on the “Big Data” in a way or another. All these new “industries” produce data that has to be stored and analysed.
The amount of data generated every day grows at a tremendous rate. On the other half, the cost of data storage has declined, year by year.
To give you a better idea how important “Big Data” is, I have some statistics for you: We generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. That is 2.5 followed by 18 zeros. All that data, properly used can change save lives, eradicate diseases, stop world hunger. That is how important the “Big Data” is.
 

Internet of Things

You can imagine IoT as an invisible network, made from the physical objects or “things” around you. Objects you see at work, at home, in the car, etc. These objects will be “embedded” with smart, connected sensors one day. Sensors connected to the internet, capable of collecting and exchanging the data. With you, with other smart objects, with your doctor or your insurance for example.
I already have smart sensors in my home and, in my car. Lights go off when I leave my home and turn back on when I return. I can turn the heating on from my mobile even if I am abroad. My car unlocks the doors on my proximity and when I touch the driving wheel the engine starts. Oh, yes, the fridge. I have a relation with my fridge.
It is true, my fridge messages me more often than my partner but no, it is not that kind of relationship. My fridge lets me know if any of the food expired or if I need to replenish the stock.
We are now in 2015 and there are not many devices connected to the internet. From a Cisco press release, de’ Medici gathered that only 1% of IoT devices are “networked”.

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Android Fingerprint Sensor Flaw Could Open Up Enterprises To Security Risks

 

Security is uppermost in the minds of IT managers when considering whether to allow BYOD. The recent slate of Android vulnerabilities uncovered by security researchers is certain to unnerve many IT folks.

The latest Android flaw uncovered involves the fingerprint sensor on Android phones, which could provide hackers the ability to steal the user's fingerprints.

FireEye researchers Yulong Zhang and Tao Wei gave a presentation at the BlackHat security conference last week in which they showed how an attacker could gain access to not only the user's fingerprint but to anyone who scanned their fingerprints using the compromised sensor. And once the hackers steal the fingerprint, they can abuse it for the rest of the victim's life.

Fingerprint sensors on mobile devices are being used to secure everything from access to banking accounts to corporate data. So a compromised sensor could pose significant security risks for organizations, particularly those that allow employees to bring their own devices.

The researchers warned that the flaw in the fingerprint sensor could enable attackers to "remotely harvest fingerprints on a large scale," according to a paper they prepared based on their work.

The FireEye researchers recommended that Android users "choose mobile device vendors with timely patching/upgrading to the latest version (e.g., Android Lollipop)…and install popular apps from reliable sources."

Facing Stagefright, Google, Samsung, LG all commit to pushing monthly security patches for Android devices

Following the revelation of Android-focused malware Stagefright, Google is working to push monthly security fixes to its millions of mobile users worldwide. Samsung and LG have both committed to streamline that update process to push patches to their Android devices.

The complicated Android ecosystem, where mobile operators and handset makers serve as gatekeepers to software updates, has traditionally made it difficult for Google to push out any kind of update to all end users. Having Samsung and LG on board with the new monthly fix plan helps but doesn't entirely solve the problem. 

The newfound MMS-based attack put an estimated 950 million Android devices at risk, according to Joshua Drake, Zimperium VP of platform research and exploitation. The exploit has likely done no favors for the unsecure perception of Android in the enterprise, an image Google has been trying to shed.

The first of those patches went out Wednesday to Google devices to shore up the flaw that Stagefright exploited. While the blog post points to Google pushing over-the-air updates to only its own branded devices, statements from OEMs show they will try to institute those updates as soon as they can, carriers permitting.

In an email statement, Google did not make clear how all OEMs would handle the updates. However, Samsung and LG made their own statements that showed their intentions to set up systems to fix security flaws as soon as possible.

Samsung, whose devices make up 37.8 percent of the entire Android market share, fast tracked the Stagefright security updates to its Galaxy devices and will build on that incident to optimize future monthly processes.

In a similar move, LG will push the Stagefright updates to all of its in-market devices susceptible to the attack and set up its own monthly fixes for Android.

All said, much of the onus for providing security fixes will fall on the carriers for whom the OEMs supply phones. LG and Samsung said they are both working with carriers to push updates as quickly as possible.

If anything, Android's fractured OS ecosystem could use a bit of top-down unification. Whether that crystallizes around security, and whether Google and its OEM partners can figure out a way to seamlessly do it, remains to be seen.

Microsoft teams with Jasper to integrate IoT platforms

Microsoft is partnering with Jasper, an Internet of Things platform provider, to integrate Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, set to be released later this year, with Jasper's IoT services platform.

The integration, which has been ongoing for months, will provide enterprises with an integrated IoT management platform that will enable them to bring new IoT services to market faster, facilitate their shift from product to services businesses, and rapidly scale their IoT deployments, explained Jasper.

Microsoft unveiled its Azure IoT Suite at its Convergence conference in March. The suite will integrate Azure cloud capabilities to help firms connect, manage and analyze their IoT devices. The suite will provide enterprises with apps targeting IoT use cases – such as remote monitoring, asset management and predictive maintenance.

Jasper's cloud-based IoT platform, known as the Control Center, gives companies visibility, intelligence and control so that they can deploy, manage and monetize IoT services for connected devices.

What Jasper is doing with Microsoft is enabling an integration of all of the data coming from Control Center and exposing that to the users of the Azure IoT Suite. The work started a few months back and it will be available when Microsoft releases the Azure IoT Suite later this year.

Commercial and Industrial Use of IoT to Fuel Tripling of Devices by 2020

The commercial, industrial and public services sectors are expected to fuel growth in the Internet of Things, with the number of IoT connected devices forecast by Juniper Research tripling to 38 billion units by 2020.

In particular, retail, manufacturing, agriculture, energy and smart buildings are expected to drive demand for IoT devices. These sectors will be enabled to see a high return on investment through IoT projects, owing to more efficient business processes, Juniper Research predicted.

Juniper Research defined IoT as the "combination of devices and software systems, connected via the Internet, that produce, receive and analyse data. These systems must have the aim of transcending traditional siloed ecosystems of electronic information in order to improve quality of life, efficiency, create value and reduce cost."

Interoperability hurdles owing to conflicting standards continues to slow progress in the market. Nevertheless, there are signs that standards bodies and alliances are beginning to engage to overcome these hurdles, explained Sorrell.

IoT connections create data, but this data need to be gathered, analyzed and understood. The analytics back-end systems of the IoT will therefore form the backbone of its long-term success, Sorrell concluded.

Nigeria’s digital economy’ll grow with IoT — Buitelaar

The Managing Director, Smile Communications, Mr. Michiel Buitelaar, has said that for the digital economy to grow in the country, the government needs to give priority to the Internet of Things.

He said the IoT was the only practicable determinant to growing a viable digital economy in Nigeria, saying, it would make the people to become more productive.

“Fundamentally, the economy is very positive and will benefit a lot by becoming digital in the way it does business,” he said.

The Smile MD said that the concept of IoT was already happening in Nigeria, but stated that businesses and individuals should be more open to it.

“We have a very innovative climate here. One will be amazed with the number of people, vehicles and machines hooking up and finding new ways of doing business,” Buitelaar added.

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Meanwhile, he said Smile Communications, with the deployment of 4G/LTE technology that runs on 800GHz spectrum, offered the “best connectivity and high network availability index in the country.”

Buitelaar quoted the Nigerian Communications Commission Monthly Internet Subscribers Data, which indicated that users on the country’s telecom networks increased to 83,362,814 as of February 2015.

He, therefore, said that Smile understood the type of broadband services Nigerians had been waiting for, “even at a reduced price and has consistently provided them with excellent services.”

He said that it was a common thing among some operators that as more customers subscribed to their network, the quality depreciated, saying, “but at Smile and after our successful start, we are working to ensure there is no such backlash to customers coming to the network.”

He said, “We are prepared and working through densification of the network. Where we see issues, we quickly address them.

“More so, we are deploying more capacity and the figure shows we are actually meeting our brand promise which is for everybody to get six megabytes per second on download, even as the busy hours of the day.

“Our team has always been on its oars to meet the target and we don’t get congestion. In other words, we are ready to offer corporate organisations the kind of connectivity that will enhance their productivity.”

However, Smile Communications Chief Marketing Officer, Mrs. Alero Ladipo, said that after two years in operations, the network session with the CEOs, CTOs and CIOs of major firms operating in Nigeria was to alert the participants about “our service offering and how we can help reduce their costs.”

Speaking through the Head of Corporate and Enterprises Sales, Mr. Chiekezi Dozie, Ladipo said, “We use 800GHz spectrum, which itself offers efficiency for mobile communications.

“It is a pure Internet provider network. So, we can do corporate voice, data, and can make life very simple for them.”

She said, “The era we are in, people are increasingly engaging in mobile communications; therefore, we have MiFis, mobile and fixed solutions to cover the whole gamut of corporate requirements. The testimonials are out there.

“Apart from the fact that our network is very fast even at reduced cost, we have had a couple of tests with some Automated Teller Machines.

“We compared the network on the ATMs with machines in other networks. A normal ATM with a different connectivity provider records about 43 seconds speed on transaction. But with our network, such transaction was done in 23 seconds. That is an improvement on customer experience.”

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Cisco Backs UK IoT Start Ups With $150M Investment

Cisco committed to investing $150 million (€134 million) in UK Internet of Things (IoT) start ups as part of a broader plan to pump $1 billion into the country's digital economy.

The U.S.-based infrastructure company announced a major extension of its UK investment strategy following a meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Business Secretary Sajid Javid, Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, incoming Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, and Cisco UK CEO Phil Smith.

In a statement, Cisco said its UK IoT investments will focus on the financial, retail and healthcare industries, along with smart city development. The company also plans to acquire businesses focussing on wireless software, next generation video delivery, and cloud-based security technologies. Cisco is also aiming to make corporate investments to accelerate innovation in cyber-security.

The latest investment also covers extending the work of the Cisco Networking Academy--an education programme established to boost the number of students utilising science, technology, engineering and maths skills--to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

Cisco said its latest investment will also seek to address UK government concerns about a north/south economic divide by adding new centres of expertise, funding university collaborations, investing in skills and expanding apprenticeship programmes. The company said the UK is its second largest country market and that it plans to add 200 new jobs to its operations in the market, and construct a new "state of the art" office in central London by the end of the year.

David Cameron said Cisco's investment plan "is great news for the UK's growing digital economy" and a "clear vote of confidence in our long term economic plan."

Cisco in February announced a similar ($100 million) investment in France's digital economy as part of an overseas investment programme the company started eight years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Tour de France and IoT Together At Last

South African IT firm Dimension Data proclaimed that it was partnering with Amaury Sport Organisation, which owns the Tour de France, to deliver big data cycling analytics platform for the first time in the history of professional cycling. This would be accomplished through sensors installed on cyclists' seats, with the data collected and analyzed by Dimension Data's cloud-based platform and delivered to a website that could be customized by the users depending on which cyclists they wanted to follow.
They are collecting sensor data, such as the cyclist's speed, location, and position relative to other cyclists, and processing the data through its cloud platform. 198 riders in 22 teams are generating 42,000 geospatial points and 75 million GPS readings. In addition, the website, once it is up and running, will support 17 million viewers and 2,000 page requests per second. This would probably be the coolest domestic and sport application of IoT ever.

Luxul Unveiled World’s First IOT Switch-based Lighting Control System at LFI 2015

Luxul Technology unveiled its latest innovation at LIGHTFAIRR International: MATCH - the world’s first IOT switch-based lighting control system, where you can control, monitor and manage your light switch and energy consumption directly from your mobile phone or tablet.
During the exhibition, Luxul Technology hosted multiple seminars and Q&A sessions, introducing and demonstrating MATCH to industry experts. Using a scale model, dubbed the MATCH TOWER, Luxul Technology CEO Dr. James Pan wowed the crowd as he illustrated the numerous applications of MATCH.
”We have created a simple product with complex functionality, giving the user more control in one click” said Luxul’s CEO Dr. James Pan. “The positive feedbacks are overwhelming. LIGHTFAIRR International 2015 has been a huge success for Luxul Technology”.
MATCH system control functions allows users to turn lights on and off from any location. One unique function of MATCH is its meter capabilities, which provides users with analysis and reports on voltage, current and energy usage. Thus helping users manage and control their energy consumption.  

Accenture, Cisco And Others Form Wireless IoT Standards Group

Another standards group has been formed to accelerate the adoption of wireless Internet of Things technologies. Called the Wireless IoT Forum, the group's board includes Accenture, Arkessa, BT, Cisco, Telensa and WSN. The group joins at least five other standards groups, including the Industrial Internet Consortium, the Allseen Alliance, Thread and the Open Interconnect Consortium, that have been created to streamline the IoT space.

The Wireless IoT Forum said its goal is to stop fragmentation and consolidate around a minimal set of standards for both licensed and unlicensed wireless IoT solutions. In addition, the group said it will work with various end users to establish requirements and also work to build the IoT ecosystem.

The non-profit group will also help promote and market wireless IoT for wireless operators, infrastructure providers, fixed line operators, application developers and more.

The Open Interconnect Consortium, (OIC) was launched by Intel, Samsung Electronics, Broadcom and other firms to try to formulate standards for IoT and stop fragmentation. Cisco Systems, General Electric, IBM and Intel formed the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)  to create standards for the sensors inside machines and around cities as part of the Internet of Things.

Cisco Invests In 6WIND For High-Performance Networking

During a recent visit to France, Cisco CEO John Chambers committed to investing $100 million in the country's innovative technology businesses, and it looks like the networking vendor is already making good on that promise. The company is now investing in and working with 6WIND, a high-performance networking software business.

6WIND's technology includes packet processing software, accelerated virtual networking infrastructure software and IPSec software appliances. The company uses software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) technology to boost the performance of networks for enterprises, cloud services providers and telecommunications firms.

"6WIND's networking software enables a new paradigm of NFV and SDN use cases. 6WIND's fast growing number of design wins with key market players, including Cisco, exemplifies its strong added value for the telecom and networking industry," said Frederic Rombaut, head of Cisco M&A and Investments International, in a statement.

It's interesting that it's the head of mergers and acquisitions quoted in the press release. It's easy to speculate that 6WIND could be a future target for acquisition by Cisco. The company has made no such announcement, but it would follow Cisco's history of M&A – invest in a technology vendor first, ease it along and then bring it into the Cisco fold.

The investment also makes sense for Cisco because of its growing interest in SDN and NFV technologies. It's a long-term play for all networking vendors, but it's also becoming a highly competitive one, particularly as the battle between open-source and proprietary technologies heats up.