AT&T provides access to mobile internet service in over 200 countries with over 402,000 Wi-Fi hotspots. This has given the company a competitive advantage in the internet of things (IoT) space. In an interview with tele.net, Sandy Verma, senior director, AT&T Asia-Pacific for Internet of Things Strategy and Solutions, talks about the potential of these services and the benefits they can offer. Excerpts...

Which are the countries and industries that are driving the uptake of IoT in the Asia-Pacific region?

China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, are the leading countries as far as IoT uptake is concerned. However, these solutions have become a part of every board.

Home and business security is a leading application among industry verticals. The highest uptake of such applications has been seen in security monitoring, and AT&T has expertise in this field. Today, we have millions of households benefiting from IoT-based security solutions. Heavy equipment tracking is another such field, and we cover around 60 per cent of it across the globe. The next vertical we are involved in is the supply chain, especially the shipping industry.

Where does India stand in terms of IoT adoption?

IoT will play a key role in bringing about the connectivity envisaged by the government through its Digital India and Make in India initiatives.The sheer size of the medium and large industries here makes India a tremendous market for IoT. The country is growing fast in terms of mobile and internet connectivity and smartphone adoption, which points to a vast market potential. With the government looking towards digitisation, the kinds of solutions and applications we bring in will be a great help in this regard. We are already doing smart care projects in the US featuring prepaid solutions, energy conservation and lower utility operational costs.

In San Diego, for instance, we came up with smart waste management solutions. Earlier, waste would be picked up from each house individually, utilising a lot of labour. So we developed a digital solution with a control system that would see how full the trash cans were and whether the truck should take the route through a particular set of houses. This solution by AT&T has been saving fuel and labour costs worth millions in the city.

We are also working on smart buildings with a non-inclusive load monitoring solution. This involves carrying information from socket boxes and then analysing the data for carrying out various monitoring operations in the building. The system even provides smart solutions like shutting down heavy appliances during peak periods, thus saving consumers from paying the high charges accrued at those times.

What are the benefits of adopting IoT applications?

I believe there are five reasons an IoT strategy should be implemented: cost reduction, revenue increase, time savings, increased visibility, and streamlined operations. Costs can be reduced by offering more for the same price. Take the example of raw materials being exported for a fast food company in the US. AT&T provides solutions based on sensors and location technology to find out shipment coordinates as well as container temperatures. Using the internet cloud, we make sure that the information is transmitted even to hand-held devices. If there is any problem with the containers, the sensors will raise an alarm and it can then be fixed. With IoT and machine-to-machine, we can also have the data run through the cloud and order the container to open up in case of any trouble.

Today, labour and transportation account for the highest share of costs. But with the help of technology, we can eas-ily know when a container will reach a port and then propagate different supply chain networks. Since one knows the location of a container at a particular time, labour and transport vehicles can be efficiently allocated, thereby saving resources and time. Using this visibility, we can plan better and also streamline various operations simultaneously.

How much has the company invested in developing such solutions?

Over the past decade, AT&T has invested significantly on capex for such solutions. We are not reaping the results yet, but will get the benefits in the future. According to an annual PricewaterhouseCoopers report, 86 per cent of CEOs around the world have agreed that technology will help them deal with the challenges faced by their firms, with IoT as one of the top three solutions.

How do you view the uptake of IoT in countries with limited spectrum?

There are two kinds of connectivity. One is delivered through rich media like high bandwidth videos. However, IoT benefits from the other set of applications and data that requires low bandwidth as predictive maintenance of devices and machines is done through low frequency data bands. So, keeping in mind the existing telecom infrastructure in India, IoT provides a good business opportunity.