Rapid Fire Questions on IoT Convergence

What is Convergence?

Convergence is about making IoT ecosystems interoperable to remove frictions and complexity for end users to drive massive IoT adoption.

Convergence is not a merge of technologies, but a collaboration between IoT technologies depending on use cases. This collaboration also applies to terrestrial and satellite networks complementing each other (infrastructure monitoring, environment, agriculture, or utility).

However, in many IoT applications, a best-of-breed approach using one single IoT technology is perfectly relevant.

Convergence is a customer-centric approach to supporting IoT customers with collecting data and solving business issues whatever IoT technology they choose, or in fact, not needing to choose at all, because they will ultimately be freed from this problem.

Why is IoT Convergence Important and What Problems Does It Solve?

Convergence — AKA the “capability to combine multiple IoT technologies” — aims to resolve three main business issues supporting the IoT market to scale faster:

1. No IoT technology can cover all IoT use cases.
2. No IoT technology has pervasive coverage globally.
3. End-to-end (Chip2Cloud) integration is complex for IoT customers and solutions providers using multiple IoT Technologies.

Why is Convergence Happening Now?

• Each IoT technology spent years driving adoption and figuring out its sweet spots.
• Each IoT technology successfully covered most of its use cases of choice and now experiences limitations when attempting to cover new use cases.
• The market needs have evolved from domestic to more international projects, from urban areas to sub-urban and remote areas requiring satellite reach and collaboration, and from one use case to multiple use cases per IoT customer.
• IoT customers have climbed up the IoT competency ladder and discovered that no single IoT technology fits all.

What Are the Benefits of Convergence for IoT Customers?

• Easier cost-effective integration and operation of multiple IoT technologies and access to more IoT use cases.
• Expanded coverage for some use cases like asset tracking, water metering, or agriculture.
• Increased network resilience and higher network capacity mixing complementary IoT low power wide area networks like Sigfox, LoRaWAN, and Cellular (for instance in water and gas metering markets).
• Access to technology-agnostic middleware and vertical platforms to simplify IoT operations and better exploit IoT data collected from multiple IoT technologies.

What Are the Benefits for IoT Ecosystems (Device, Modules and Solutions Makers, and System Integrators)?

• Derisk investment in multiple IoT technologies (one single product enabling multiple LPWAN).
• Access to a larger market implementing hybrid modes (Sigfox, LoRa & Cellular) leveraging multiple ecosystems.

How Can Convergence Be Applied?

Convergence can be applied throughout the IoT value chain, encompassing “Device,” “Network and Connectivity”, “Middleware,” and “Vertical applications” depending on the business case and the actors involved — it is applied when it brings value to the customer