Foreword

Welcome to the new issue of InterComms; as we start conference season and are finding out where 2017 will take us, we have the faster impact of IoT and M2M technology coming in and taking bandwidth and power from the respective systems how we go about increasing these networks will determine the impact of these dynamic technologies. We look at the impact in our Smart Cities and Smart Life section: I would like to thank Dublin City Council for their article, as well as Carl Piva from the TM Forum, and backing up the start of this paragraph Arthur D Little on how service providers are critical by enabling this growth.

The main area of concern for providers of IoT and M2M solutions is security and protection of data, the wider the deployment of linked M2M the more risk of cyber crime and cyber attacks: we have a piece by Cisco on their new cyber lab. We also have a nice article from the Open Mobile Alliance on bridging the gap between standards and IoT developers.

We are also looking at the rise or reality of 5G; call me a cynic but are we really at 5G, or even 4G, as a complete service in many countries? It’s not here in my green, leafy region of Ireland!

As always I would like to thank our other contributors: the ITU, Broadband Forum and oneM2M. Please email me with comments, good, bad or indifferent, it’s by critique that we improve the project as we move into our 17th year.

robert.alcock@intercomms.net