Ericsson and Intel said they're launching 5G Innovators Initiative (5GI2), “an open industry initiative designed to explore, test and innovate with 5G network and distributed edge technologies.” The group will focus on the industrial IoT, or IIoT, said Aicha Evans, general manager of the Intel Communication and Devices Group, in a Tuesday blog post. “The 5GI2 will join major equipment manufacturers, leading technology companies, industry leaders and top universities to accelerate the adoption of 5G wireless and infrastructure innovation in the U.S.” Initial members also include General Electric, Honeywell and the University of California, Berkeley. Evans said Intel will have multiple announcements next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. At last year’s MWC, “we revealed our plans for 5G products and trial acceleration, rolling out our first-generation mobile trial platform that immediately offered the industry a development platform for fast prototyping, integration and testing,” she said. “Steady progress has followed. Throughout 2016, we entered into several 5G trials around the globe with tier-one service providers.” At CES in January, Intel released a 5G modem, “the world’s first global 5G modem that supports both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands and transforms connectivity for a variety of use cases,” Evans said. 5G is already here, Evans said: "The big difference with 5G is that when you start to talk about ‘autonomy’ and factories, cars and hospitals thinking for themselves, they will rely on split-second connectivity to do so -- with no room for error.”

IBM launched an ecosystem initiative around its Watson IoT business in Munich, it said in a Thursday announcement. Calling the effort the first “cognitive collaboratories,” IBM said development teams from Avnet, BNP Paribas, Capgemini and Tech Mahindra will collocate development teams at the IBM center, which will also act as innovation space for European IoT standards organization EEBus. IoT innovation has reached a “tipping point,” said Harriet Green, general manager, IBM Watson IoT, cognitive engagement and education, who pegged the number of clients and partners wanting to co-innovate on the IoT ecosystem at 6,000.

GSMA launched an “IoT Big Data API Directory” designed to make “harmonised data sets from multiple sources worldwide available to developers and third parties, enabling them to create innovative new Internet of Things (IoT) services.” API stands for application programming interface. “The directory, which is the first of its kind, is designed to encourage a common approach to data sharing that will help the IoT to realise its full potential and encourage the development of new projects across transport, the environment and smart cities,” GSMA said in a Wednesday news release. Wireless operators China Mobile, China Unicom, KT Corporation, Orange and Telefónica put in place solutions enabling them to share harmonized IoT data, GSMA said.

The Connected City Advisory Board unveiled a guide for aspiring smart cities. The Wireless Broadband Alliance committee report provides information to governments developing connected-city plans, including factors to consider, what technology is required and case studies. “The CCAB’s Blueprint will enable cities to grow partnerships, and share essential knowledge that will essentially help better the lives of millions,” said Wireless Broadband Alliance CEO Shrikant Shenwai.

AT&T, IBM, Nokia, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec and Trustonic formed the IoT Cybersecurity Alliance Wednesday to “use their combined expertise to help tackle today's top [IoT] security challenges,” AT&T said: IoTCA “will research and raise awareness of ways to better secure the IoT ecosystem.” AT&T said the group also intends to “influence” cybersecurity standards and policies. “Be it a connected car, pacemaker or coffee maker, every connected device is a potential new entry point for cyberattacks," said AT&T Chief Security Officer Bill O’Hern. "Each device requires very different security considerations. It's become essential for industry leaders and innovators like those in the founding members of this Alliance, to work together to help the industry find more holistic security approaches for IoT.”

Total global spending on IoT “endpoints and services” will reach almost $2 trillion in 2017, Gartner reported Tuesday. It forecasts 8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016, and will reach 20.4 billion by 2020. The consumer segment will be the largest user of connected things, with 5.2 billion units in 2017, or 63 percent of the overall number of applications in use, Gartner said. "Aside from automotive systems, the applications that will be most in use by consumers will be smart TVs and digital set-top boxes, while smart electric meters and commercial security cameras will be most in use by businesses."

AT&T is testing smart lighting in Atlanta with Georgia Power and General Electric’s Current, the company said in a Tuesday news release. The city and power company will pilot Current’s IoT sensor platform for cities and install 1,000 wirelessly controlled LED lights. The companies plan to test the smart lighting in five areas of Atlanta, including the North Avenue Corridor where AT&T is testing other smart city technologies, the Buckhead Loop, a major business, retail and entertainment area, and near Atlanta’s football stadium. Meanwhile, AT&T is talking to power companies and others about trials of a broadband-over-power-lines (BPL) technology called Project AirGig, the carrier said in a news release Tuesday. AT&T plans trials in at least two locations by this fall of the technology that combines BPL and millimeter wave wireless, the carrier said. “One location will be in the United States with others to be determined in the coming months.”

Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., reintroduced the Digit Act Tuesday as HR-686, which was referred to the Commerce Committee. The legislation focuses on spectrum management and IoT. The Senate Commerce Committee cleared its companion Tuesday.

With an installed base of 15 billion IoT devices forecast by 2021, botnets could be an unmanageable cybersecurity risk, Juniper Research reported Monday. The use of botnets to disrupt internet services is a current threat and will be used for more malicious purposes, it said. Attacks such as the ones against Dyn in October (see 1610210056) can be seen as “proof of concepts,” said analyst Steffen Sorrell. “Medium-term, botnets will be used far more creatively -- not only to disrupt services, but also to create a distraction enabling multi-pronged attacks aimed at data theft or physical asset disruption.” Juniper urged IoT device manufacturers to implement security-by-design and said vendors such as Amazon, Google and Samsung should lead efforts to bring together other vendors to establish “security best-practices.” The market is “wide open for challenger cybersecurity vendors,” said the report, saying the industry needs to move beyond traditional signature-based detection methods to address IoT cybersecurity effectively.

Members and staff of the Mobile & Wireless Forum (MWF) said they met with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss IoT concerns. They discussed “MWF’s concerns about the capacity of the present certification procedures to accommodate the burgeoning number of approvals anticipated from the Internet of Things together with a proposal for a pilot program for expansion of self-certification where there would be limited risk of compliance issues,” the group said in a Thursday filing in docket 15-170. They also discussed the measurement of maximum permissible exposure for high-frequency spectrum devices “with emphasis on the need for the FCC Lab to establish an improved measurement area,” the filing said. The group stressed the importance of harmonizing a specific absorption rate for IoT devices. Among those at the meeting were OET Chief Julius Knapp and Rashmi Doshi, chief of the FCC lab, who joined by phone, MWF said. MWF members Intel, Motorola Solutions, Samsung and Zebra Technologies were represented at the meeting.