Attention telcos: plum roles ahead in the world of IoT

TELECOMMUNICATIONS companies have fine-tuned the process of upgrading a mobile phone into a fairly mundane ritual. But that's just your phone, circa 2017. What about a biotech company that needs to transfer the data of connected lab systems while securing sensitive or proprietary information? Or a car factory that needs to upgrade hundreds of sensor-equipped robots while minimising costly downtime? Or a hospital that needs to protect patient data as it updates monitoring equipment?

Just as no one thinks about the electric company until the power goes out, early exuberance for the Internet of Things (IoT) - an umbrella term for devices that use sensors to connect and communicate with the Internet and one another - has focused more on new products and possibilities, and less on the inevitable tedium of managing, maintaining and replacing IoT-enabled devices when they break down at the end of their useful life span.

Simply put, the world is not prepared for the onslaught of complexity that will result from 50 billion powerful devices in homes, offices, factories and cities that will eventually break or suffer connectivity issues. Companies and industrial users, which are bringing IoT technology to everything from jet engines to mining equipment, have particularly complex needs.