Mobile M2M connections on the up

Cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are set to rise by more than a third in the next four years, analyst Berg Insight predicts, driven by rollouts of vehicle telematics.

Wireless from A to Z

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A is for Antivirus
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E is for Email
F is for FMC
G is for GPS
H is for HSDPA
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J is for Japan Air
K is for Korea
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M is for M2M
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Z is for Zigbee

The number of mobile network connections used for M2M comms will grow from 37.5 million in 2007 to 186 million in 2012, says the analyst. But the analyst predicts vehicle telematics - aka wireless vehicle comms tech - apps will dominate the M2M cellular market in most parts of the world, accounting for more than half of all network connections by 2012.

Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight, said safety and security concerns are driving the automative industry towards "massive rollouts of telematics".

He said in a statement: "In North America, OnStar already gives peace of mind to millions of drivers. Europe is well on the way to introducing the eCall automatic emergency call system and several Latin American countries are considering mandatory tracking devices on all new cars to combat epidemic vehicle crime."

Berg Insight said GSM and legacy technologies currently dominate the market, accounting for about 71 per cent of the total number of active connections at the end of 2007. CDMA was the second largest tech - strong in North America and parts of Asia-Pacific, while WCDMA has so far primary been adopted for M2M apps in Japan.