ComptelPLUS Fall14 Show Daily Day 2

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COMPTEL PLUS Fall 2015 Business Expo
COMPTELPlus | Tuesday, October 20, 2015 Beka Publishing, 6
DAY 2
has added numerous members from these other
categories, including Google, Netflix Inc., Amazon,
Twitter, AngelList, Level 3, XO Communications,
Rocket Fiber and T-Mobile.
This year, INCOMPAS has been at the forefront of
several high-profile policy
victories, including Open Internet, the Tech Transi-
tions, and the defeat of the Comcast-Time Warner
Cable merger.
The new INCOMPAS name is effective immediately
and will be implemented across the organization’s
products and services over the next several months.
Learn more about INCOMPAS at
or plan to attend one of the association’s
upcoming events: The INCOMPAS 2016 Policy
Summit, February 8-11 in Washington, D.C., or the
2016 INCOMPAS Shows, April 10-13 in Washington,
D.C., and October 23-26 in Dallas. o
(Rebranding, continued from page 1)
Carriers CanWin inWearables with Value-Adds
The revolution may be televised, but it’s also
going to be wearable.
Derek Kerton, founder of Kerton Group
and Telecom Council Silicon Valley, took to the
Over-the-Top Platform Zone in the Expo Hall
yesterday to talk about the future of wearables
technology—and where carriers fit in.
Wearables, he said, primarily fall into two cate-
gories: fitness trackers like Fitbit, and smartwatches.
For the former, the use cases are obvious. For the
latter, the main value proposition lies in how smart-
watches can streamline app notifications.
“Millennials get about 120 notifications per day,”
he said. “Everyone else gets about 20 to 50. Notifica-
tions tell you how many steps you’ve taken today;
who has opened the front door at your house;
whether you have new mail. Unlike the smartphone
experience, the ability to glance at information and
dismiss it without interrupting dinner or a meeting
is the No. 1 value prop—and that’s horizontal and
applies to everyone.”
When it comes to how operators fit into the
ecosystem, Kerton said that they need to be stra-
tegic, despite the conventional wisdom about
the Internet of Things (IoT) that predicts billions
of devices will be connecting to mobile networks
sooner rather than later.
“IoT is based on the notion that cellular networks
are not just about connecting phones anymore,”
Kerton said. “But the reality is, if I’m a farmer,
dropping sensors in my field to measure what’s
happening, it’s far more likely that I’ll roll those up
and transmit them via Wi-Fi into [my house] and
connect them via a cable connection. So how many
of these IoT devices will actually be connected to
carriers? Not many, unless they have appropriate
pricing and services.”
He added, “If carriers have rational pricing strat-
egies, and rethink their packages for all of these
things to fit into specific use cases, then more
people will attach their wearables.”
He pointed out that providing things like
data security will be critical to carriers being
able to participate in this market. They do have
an opportunity in providing value-adds around
services like security—particularly when one
considers just how much information wearables
collect on users.
Kerton brought up an example of data scientists
in Russia, who studied the data collected by Fitbits
on its users. Using big data analytics, they were able
to determine with 90 percent certainty whether
someone had early onset Parkinsons, because Fitbit
records even miniscule movements of the user.
“The data these types of gadgets collect
includes much more private information that you
ever thought that they did,” Kerton said. “Aside from
the serendipity involved in the early discovery of
disease and resulting better healthcare outcomes,
there’s a tremendous amount of business opportu-
nity for those willing to take it.”
IDC estimates that 72.1 million wearable devices
will be shipped in 2015, up 173.3 percent from
the 26.4 million units shipped in 2014. Shipment
volumes are expected to grow at a 42.6 percent
CAGR over the five-year forecast period, reaching
155.7 million units shipped in 2019. o
By Tara Seals
Kerton Group’s Derek Kerton considers wearables and carrier models.