Ericsson Raises Target -- More than 50 billion Connected Devices

Ericsson
reiterated its long-range connectivity forecast, saying the vision of 50 billion connected devices by 2020 is within reach and may be exceeded.



The vision of more than 50 billion connected devices, based on ubiquitous internet access over mobile broadband, devices or things will be connected and networked independently of where they are. Falling prices for communication, combined with new services and functionality connecting virtually everything to serve a wide range of commercial applications, individual needs and needs of society.



The human aspect of more than 50 billion connected devices goes way beyond smart living and new gaming devices. The company estimates the cost of cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) modules is falling at an annual rate of 15 percent, which makes connectivity-based services increasingly affordable. The cost of connectivity is already as low as US$1.4 per gigabyte.



In an address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, said three forces are coming together as the foundation for the networked society: mobility, broadband, and the cloud. To support all three forces, he listed new products and concepts launched by Ericsson at Mobile World Congress. Those include: the Ericsson Device Connection Platform, which helps operators quickly and easily launch machine-to-machine solutions, Antenna integrated radio - the first stepping stone towards a heterogeneous network, IP networking portfolio, and a PC as a Service solution, which allows operators to bundle software in the cloud on top of mobile broadband subscriptions for consumers.



A whitepaper on the 50 billion connected device vision has been posted on the company's website.http://www.ericsson.com