TIA Blog

The community of information and communication technology (ICT) manufacturers, vendors and suppliers that TIA represents realizes the potential that the Internet of Things holds across all segments of the global economy and the improvements in countless aspects of consumers' and businesses' everyday activities.

The penetration of increasingly connected devices (via Internet adoption and faster mobile connections) and the availability of advanced computing capability with significant processing power has started to facilitate the growth of the IoT. In 2012, an estimated 8.7 billion things were connected worldwide — projections show that with the new technological capabilities this could grow to 50 billion by the year 2020, generating global revenues of $8.9 trillion by 2020. With virtually any device becoming IoT-capable and with significantly increased analytics capability, government, consumers and businesses can make decisions that are more efficient and can develop new business models which maximize the value of data.

All of this is why, with great interest, we reviewed a recent release from India's Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) proposing a Draft IoT Policy. In this document, DeitY explores ways in which it can help the IoT reach its full potential in India through over $1b US of funding through proposed priority "pillars." In TIA's comments to DeitY submitted on October 31, 2014, we commended DeitY for exploring ways in which it can help reach this potential through its Draft IoT Policy, and urged them to prioritize the following:

• DeitY is urged to respect competitive differentiation and business continuity, and to view this as a driver of solutions for the IoT. As ICT manufacturers and vendors work to meet the needs of their customers, better products and services are naturally more attractive in the market. This drives ICT manufacturers and vendors to strive to improve the key characteristics of their products and services as they work with the range of organizations and enterprise customers they supply to ensure that performance goals of those organizations are reflected in the ICT purchased.
• DeitY should not take a role that would have a government entity be in a position to determine the future design and development of any technology. To do otherwise would set a precedent of interfering with the core of the ICT sector, pulling apart the innovation, interoperability and standards that are needed to advance the IoT. There is no "one size fits all" solution to addressing needs across the diverse applications that fall under the IoT. For example, while some applications may perform best using ultra low power radios and chipsets, others may not, e.g. automotive, video-based applications (digital displays), home gateways, etc.
• Reflect the necessity of international approaches and standards to the success of the IoT for India consumers, companies and global stakeholders. Numerous standards, guidelines, best practices, and tools are used by ICT manufacturers and the owners and operators of telecommunications networks to understand, measure, and manage risk for IoT products and services at the management, operational, and technical levels.
• DeitY should fully utilize the successful public-private partnership (PPP) model in its approach to the IoT, including the global ICT industry. PPPs are an effective tool for collaboration in addressing concerns and solutions, serve as a key incentive to encourage businesses to make investments in the IoT, and are able to dynamically evolve in response to changes in threats and the risk environment. As both the complexity and number of IoT applications grow, it will be critical that DeitY and other governments leverage and augment, or create where necessary, PPPs to accelerate the IoT.
• DietY should prioritize education and awareness in its proposed IoT policy in partnership with industry stakeholders. The full potential of the IoT cannot be achieved without both business and consumer buy-in and adoption of these new services. Across the ICT manufacturer community, companies are already conducting outreach today to inform increasingly shorter product cycles as they compete in the global ICT market. TIA stands ready to work closely with DeitY to outline our members' efforts to ensure the future of IoT is trusted with protecting consumer data.

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