Policy Brief on Internet of Things and Transport

The International Transport Forum at the OECD is an intergovernmental organisation with 53 member countries. It acts as a strategic think tank for transport policy and organises an annual summit of ministers. For this years summit on Seamless Transport I wrote a policy brief on the Internet of Things and Transport.

Building the "Internet of Things"
In the coming years the Internet will move from connecting people to connecting things. In a new report entitled “Machine to Machine (M2M) communication: Connecting billions of devices”, the OECD analyses the
impact of this phenomenon. The report

• finds new sources of growth
• identifies significant barriers to the functioning of the market
• proposes liberalisation to further open the mobile telecom market, to enable new entrants that may be transport, energy and healthcare companies, not telecom providers
• argues to support trade and travel for manufacturers and service providers in providing these services across borders,
• argues that removing barriers will result in billions in direct and indirect savings on mobile connectivity, and additional billions in new revenue from new services. 

In 2017, in OECD-countries an average family with two teenagers could have 25 things that are connected to the Internet: telephones, TV, tablets, printers, sports gear and health devices. But that is not all. Companies will dramatically change the way they design machines and devices, starting from the type of data they need to operate efficiently and effectively and then building the machine or device around it. Tens of billions of connected devices by 2025 is not farfetched. The combination of the data will allow smart transport, smart
cities, smart energy and smart health. for more see http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/PolicyBriefs/PDFs/2012-04-04.pdf