Neither the economic forces nor the cultural forces described are necessarily bad. Cellular carriers want to efficiently use their infrastructure and spectrum resources to remain profitable. Technology providers want to maximize the amount of IP that is embedded in the wireless standards. The standards bodies want to write standards that improve performance over previous generations. All of these are good efforts.

These become problems when these efforts are not aligned with the needs of the devices requiring connectivity on the IoT.

Spectrum and infrastructure costs mean that low ARPU devices will always be second tier. Moreover, the cellular generations are driven not by IoT device needs, but by the higher ARPU, voice/data needs of human consumers. Competition between technology providers drives the cellular generation cycles that destroy the longevity that IoT devices need. These cycles are reinforced by the standards bodies themselves wanting to create the next accepted standard.

We claim that it is possible to use those forces to properly serve the IoT’s needs — with a couple of key changes to the cellular ecosystem.

The core of the issue is the intersection of the technology and the ecosystem providing and using it. Spectrum costs too much to use for low ARPU devices and technology providers’ competing to increase the portion of their IP in the cellular technology stack drives the cellular sunsetting ever onward.

Here are simple and effective solutions to the carriers IoT conundrum:

  1. Unlicensed spectrum, when used correctly by the right technology, can rid carriers of the spectrum costs.
  2. The technology costs can be removed by investing in an IoT wireless technology that is incentivized to not change every nine years.
Ingenu is uniquely incentivized to serve the needs of IoT devices. IoT devices are our only customers, we have no voice/data needs competing with the needs of our devices. We are not subject to standards bodies changing and rewriting RPMA — Ingenu owns the IP stack. We completely understand the need to guarantee longevity to IoT devices. Our technology is the only LPWA technology that is capable of serving the long-term needs of the IoT.

By all accounts, Ingenu’s incentives, culture, and technology are perfectly aligned with the needs of IoT devices. And this is by design. Through Ingenu’s RPMA technology, today’s current cellular ecosystem can tap into Ingenu’s unique position to serve the IoT. They can establish a parallel network for less than the cost of software upgrades, not compete with their core business, all while capturing the benefits of the exploding IoT. With Ingenu’s RPMA technology, cellular carriers can truly have their cake and eat it too. And that’s because Ingenu exists exclusively to connect machines. It’s what we do.

To find out more about Ingenu’s LPWA technology, RPMA, contact us today.