LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 NORTH AMERICA: The Internet of Things (IoT) transforms the potential of a wide range of products by making them part of a wider service ecosystem, Jahangir Mohammed, CEO of Jasper said, noting: “the internet of things, it’s about service”.

“Before these devices were connected, we were limited by what was available in the ‘thing’. The moment it gets connected, its processing power suddenly becomes limitless, because its power is the entire internet. And the information that is available to that thing also becomes limitless,” he observed.

And this transformation will affect businesses beyond traditional tech verticals, transforming the way that relationships with consumers are conducted.

“Just about every business is going to become an Internet of Things business, it’s an inevitability. Because not only is the way people use things transformed, businesses are transformed. For the first time, businesses are continually connected to their customers, they know how customers are experiencing their products,” Mohammed said.

According to the Jasper head, there are four parts of the IoT ecosystem where operators can play a role – global SIMs, network, service software and applications.

For the first, “the contribution is to make the SIM one SIM for many countries. Why this is important, is because these companies manufacture in one place and then ship to so many countries, and for them to plan and change to different SIMs is a logistical nightmare,” he said.

Moving on to networks, these “need to be made easy to use and scale for enterprises in the IoT space. That was not what the network was originally built for, but there are some things that operators can do to make it so much more consumable by these different companies. It’s an obvious contribution, and a place to make revenue,” Mohammed said.

Above this – and the area where Jasper plays – is enabling software. While acknowledging that in some areas, such as big data analytics, the best option is to work with specialist players, “some parts of it I think are best delivered by the operator, and the reason is this: there are some parts of the software that need to be deeply integrated for the network for this to really work”.

Finally, noting that applications “tend to be very specific” for the purposes they are designed to serve, operators can play a role as the delivery channel and the sales channel” at this level.