Choosing hardware before choosing an IoT cloud “is like buying building materials before understanding the building codes,” said an Ayla Networks white paper on pitfalls when launching an IoT product. “You risk starting over again; adding significant costs and delays to your project.” It said that before heading to market, companies need to know how customers will use a connected product, what value it will provide and what types of customers will value it enough to pay for it. Connectivity requires “significantly more testing and refinement” than a discrete version, said Ayala, promoting its platform that it said can shave three to six months off time to market for a single-device IoT product. Without proper planning, companies risk going over budget and missing promised market windows, which can damage competitiveness, reputation, and credibility, it said. Companies bringing their first IoT product to market should aim for the basics and not over-engineer, said the cloud platform company. By focusing on key features that drive value, the product has the best chance to succeed, it said. “Your connected product will take longer to build than you could possibly envision,” it said, so it's important to simplify, identify a real use case and solve it, with ease of use at the forefront. Ayla recommends three months of field testing, with four or more months for more complex IoT solutions. That provides time to uncover bugs, security holes and poor handoffs along the device-to-cloud-to-mobile-app timeline and to fix them before launch. Don’t foist “buggy” products onto customers, it said.

Making more spectrum available for 5G, not prescriptive regulations, will help IoT growth, Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation senior fellow, blogged Friday. “Given the potentially dizzying diversity of network infrastructure, smart devices, and applications, the IoT is not conducive to one-size-fits-all prescriptive regulation,” Cooper wrote. “A hands-off approach toward nascent IoT technologies and services should be maintained. ... Sophisticated enterprise customers can bargain at arm’s length with IoT service providers for data privacy and other protections.”

The Industrial IoT Coalition said the FCC should keep smaller license sizes for the priority access licenses that will be auctioned in the shared 3.5 GHz band. “Industrial and critical-infrastructure operators are best positioned to evaluate their operational security needs and the necessary response to the growing threat of cyber intrusions by foreign and domestic hackers,” the IIoT Coalition said in a filing posted Friday in docket 17-258. “Industrial and critical-infrastructure entities will be able to design and deploy IIoT networks that will ensure the safety, security, resilience, and, where applicable, compliance with North American Electric Reliability standards at their essential facilities.” Members are the Edison Electric Institute, Enterprise Wireless Alliance, General Electric, pdvWireless, Port of Los Angeles, Southern Linc, Union Pacific and Utilities Technology Council.

Qualcomm wants to make the connected home more intelligent and efficient and has a new platform based on edge computing designed to make that happen, it blogged Wednesday. The chipmaker announced the first in a family of SoCs for the development of IoT smart devices. A home security camera that notifies a user every time it senses motion -- it gave as an example a Great Dane jumping on a sofa -- might be an entertaining use of a connected camera today but not very useful. More compelling is a camera pointed to the front door that’s able to differentiate between a son or daughter who has been locked out and a burglar, it said. In Qualcomm’s vision of the future, the camera could communicate with the door’s smart lock to allow entry to the child or notify the police if it senses a burglar. “This level of home security is possible, but it won’t happen overnight,” said Qualcomm. For such a camera to be truly effective, “it needs to be connected and intelligent enough to be able to process and analyze data in real time locally on the device, so it can recognize the things that matter and take immediate action,” it said. The new platform, anchored by the Qualcomm QCS605 and QCS603 SoCs, include advanced camera processing software, machine learning, computer vision software development kits and “proven connectivity and security technologies” designed for next-generation IoT devices, it said. Qualcomm’s Vision Intelligence Platform, combining powerful processing with AI and superior imaging, is applicable to products ranging from ovens to robotic vacuum cleaners and drones -- “any device that relies heavily on information that comes from a camera,” said the company. Rather than processing information in the cloud, which takes network resources and time, the camera has intelligence to respond based on “what it knows” vs. waiting for video data to be sent to the cloud for analysis and sent back, it said. The advantages of edge computing include faster processing, local control, better security and privacy -- and the use of less network bandwidth. Integrating this technology will “push the IoT ecosystem forward, as developers move away from the cloud and focus on the capabilities of the device,” Qualcomm said.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission seeks comments by June 15 in docket CPSC-2018-0007 on the “potential safety issues and hazards associated with” IoT consumer products, it said Tuesday in a notice in the Federal Register. CPSC also plans a May 16 public hearing at its Bethesda, Maryland, headquarters, the results of which “will be used to inform future Commission risk management work,” it said. Requests to make oral presentations at the hearing are due May 2, it said. The connectivity of IoT products “holds the promise of many benefits for consumers,” but also is “a potential for harm” or hazard “where none existed before” the internet connection was established, it said. It worries, for example, that “a cooktop that might be remotely controlled could start a fire,” it said: “We do not consider personal data security and privacy issues that may be related to IoT devices to be consumer product hazards that CPSC would address.”

The U.S. government has taken initial steps to secure federal networks and critical infrastructure, but the process of securing the IoT has just begun, said White House tech policy adviser Kelsey Guyselman Tuesday. Speaking at an event hosted by the American Bar Association and the FCBA, Guyselman detailed the goals of President Donald Trump’s executive order from May. Botnets and other automated threats aren't problems that can be solved by a single entity, agency or sector, she said, urging a collaborative approach to securing the IoT. Guyselman spoke in place of NTIA Administrator David Redl, who couldn't attend due to a scheduling conflict. On a separate panel, DOJ Computer Crime-Criminal Division Deputy Chief Michael Stawasz opposed the EU's general data protection regulation potentially impeding criminal investigations abroad. While working full-time to gain legal access to private data, and balancing law enforcement and privacy concerns, Stawasz said he likes the U.S.’ current framework “just fine.” The GDPR could potentially conflict with warrant compliance, he said. Wiley Rein's Megan Brown said, based on discussions with industry and officials in Europe, there has been a “slow awakening” that the GDPR could interfere with surveillance.

With satellite on the verge of being a notable competitor in broadband services and a key part of the IoT (see 1803130029), the FCC needs to build on its history of promoting fixed satellite service broadband and keep approval of new, satellite-based services a top priority, Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Seth Cooper blogged Wednesday. He said the agency needs to continue to prioritize streamlining satellite service rules and clearing spectrum for commercial satellite use, urging making "suitable spectrum available in a timely fashion for new satellite technologies and services" and pointing to Ligado's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service.

Electric utilities urged the FCC to keep census-tract sized geographic licenses for priority access licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz shared band. The Edison Electric Institute reported on a meeting between members and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, overseeing the FCC’s look at changing the rules for the citizens broadband radio service band. If the FCC approves larger PALs, utilities and other critical industry companies won’t be able to compete with wireless carriers for the licenses, EEI said in docket 17-258. “The industry is investing approximately $100 billion per year on building new infrastructure,” EEI said. “Much of this investment is targeted at deployment of the Smart Grid/Energy loT. Not only will this help improve grid safety, reliability and security, it will also facilitate the offering of new services related to Smart Communities, microgrids, electric vehicles and a host of other new consumer services. The current spectrum that electric utilities have is not sufficient to meet the growing capacity requirements.” General Electric recently stressed keeping the current license sizes (see 1802140055).

Eutelsat commissioned a nanosatellite from Terran Orbital, to assess performance of low earth orbit satellites in providing narrowband IoT connectivity, it said Thursday. The launch is scheduled for 2019, it said, saying it will collaborate with narrowband IoT network operator Sigfox on analyzing the spectrum used by the satellite in ISM1 bands and processing the IoT data. Eutelsat said the nanosat also will be used to test connectivity in other bands.

General Electric executives said they spoke with Rachael Bender, aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, on why the FCC should keep census tract-sized licenses in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. GE has been a leading proponent of keeping the current license sizes, citing the importance to the industrial IoT (see 1802140055). “Spectrum is an essential input for myriad activities around the United States that generate important economic, social, safety, and other public interest benefits,” said a filing in docket 17-258. “GE, its industrial and critical-infrastructure customers, and other diverse users will make intensive use of their licensed spectrum with targeted, localized wireless network deployments that will generate a wave of new cutting-edge jobs and economic growth in a mix of urban, suburban, rural, and remote areas.”