GE and NTT are jointly developing IoT solutions for industrial applications

GE Energy Japan and Japanese operator NTT Docomo signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) this week that will see the two companies commit to jointly developing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for industrial uses.

The companies will combine GE Digital Energy’s MDS Orbit Platform, a wireless router for industrial equipment, and Docomo’s embedded communication module, which will provide remote access and monitoring capabilities.

The solution will be capable of monitoring tightly regulated (and hazardous) infrastructure like bridges and electricity, water and gas power plants for fitness and operational productivity.

The data generated by the embedded monitoring sensors will be sent to Docomo’s Toami cloud platform, designed primarily for M2M use cases, and users will be able to manage and analyse the data using strongly authenticated mobile platforms.

GE is an M2M veteran – in aviation and energy it was doing IoT well before the term became en vogue – and NTT Docomo already partners with a number of other technology incumbents embedded in the IoT arena including Panasonic and Jasper Wireless. Its parent, NTT Group, is also fairly active in other IoT initiatives. The company is working with both ARM and Intel on their respective IoT platforms.

Like many in this space the companies are keen to capture a chunk of growing IoT revenues, with the IoT and M2M communications market in particular forecast to swell from $256bn in 2014 to $947bn in 2019 (an estimated 30 per cent CAGR) according to MarketsandMarkets.

BCN and our sister publication Telecoms.com have put together a report on what the industry perceives to be the top benefits and challenges in consumer and industrial IoT. You can download it for free here.