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UK telecoms regulator issues call for input on Internet of Things
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Ofcom has published a call for input, entitled “Promoting investment and innovation in the Internet of Things“, regarding issues that might affect the development of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) sector in the United Kingdom. Ofcom is the UK’s independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industry. It regulates the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobile devices, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. It operates under a number of Acts of Parliament, in particular the Communications Act 2003.
IoT (which is also referred to as Cloud of Things or CoT) describes the interconnection of multiple machine to machine (M2M) applications and covers a variety of protocols, domains and applications (see J. Höller, V. Tsiatsis, C. Mulligan, S. Kamouskos, S. Avesand, D. Boyle: From Machine-to-Machine to the Internet of Things: Introduction to a New Age of Intelligence. Elsevier, 2014). These technologies and methodologies underpin smart applications and embedded devices that enable the exchange of data across multiple industry sectors, such as heart monitoring implants, factory automation sensors, industrial robotics applications, automotive sensors and biochip transponders. A 2013 report by Gartner suggested that by 2020 there will be nearly 26 billion connected IoT devices.