The Cambridge debate: "This house believes that mobile network operators will not be winners in the Internet of Things"

Whilst 50 billion devices get connected over the next ten years, the cellular industry will transform its networks by introducing LTE (Long-Term Evolution) as a universal infrastructure to support largely mobile broadband communications on around 5 billion smartphones and tablets. Do we seriously believe that the technology that is right for consumers to access content on the move, paying $50 a month, is right for connecting 50 billion devices, most of which generate little traffic for services that could hardly be economic at $50 a year? Or is the power of the incumbent operators such that only they own the networks that can be adapted for the purpose? James Collier argues that a new technology is needed to unlock the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), whilst Alex Sinclair argues that only the existing cellular communications industry has the necessary expertise to make and manage the large infrastructures and ultr-low cost terminal devices that will be needed. The presentation includes an open forum.