M2M interview with Per Simonsen

This article by Per Simonsen CEO of Telenor is worth reading.

He states that M2M traffic should not be carried by the regualar Telco platform (core network) and I agree, a specialist HLR and SGSN/GGSN are required, because the session duration and usage characteristcs for an M2M device and a regular phone are very different, because M2M devices would like to have a long lived sparsely used PDP context sesh, where as the main telco network must limit PDP context sesh to quite a short period after inactivity, in order to protect resources in the core and radio access networks (RAN).

Also he sees the most attractive growth as being in the automotive sector, and smart metering. He does not like M2M as being sold in terms of MBits, and wants it to be more about the whole service.

He does not quite mention that there is a real issue with SIMS, MSISDNS and roaming with M2M.

This is because M2M devices are build in one country (and include a SIM) are then shipped to and sold in another country, and may well be used in a third. Therefore which nationality of SIM do you put in a device when you make it (assuming no after sales service of inserting a SIM). This can be fixed but only if you design the M2M core with this in mind. more later.