Telstra has unveiled its next two forays into the IoT market, flagged by CEO Andy Penn as a key growth area for the company.*
Later this year Telstra will launch two asset location services: the Telstra Locator for consumer and small business customers, and Track and Monitor for enterprise customers.
They use a combination of bluetooth, WiFi and Cat M1 communications technologies and, in the case of bluetooth, will reply heavily on four million Telstra mobile customers running the Telstra 24 x 7 app who will be given the option of allowing their phones’ Bluetooth capability to be used to track Telstra Bluetooth tags attached to other people’s assets.
The Telstra Locator service for consumers and SMBs will launch with a 50 cent piece sized Bluetooth tag that can be attached to keys, a wallet, or a handbag, and a larger Wi-Fi/Bluetooth tag that can be attached to a dog, a bicycle or a larger bag. Early next year Telstra will introduce a larger tag using CAT- MI for attachment to “high value assets such as vehicles or machinery.”
The consumer service will launch in time for Christmas but will be preceded, in October, by the launch of the Telstra Track and Monitor service for enterprise customers. The initial service will be via a solar powered CAT-MI GPS unit designed to fit within the corrugations of a standard shipping container. It will have an inbuilt temperature monitor and an RS232 port for the connection of other monitoring devices.
Key role for Telstra 24 x 7 app users
Telstra Locator will be offered as a subscription service to Telstra prepaid mobile customers only, following an upgrade to Telstra’s 24×7 smartphone app coming out in September. The new version will allow customers to opt-in for the Telstra Device Locator feature and become part of a Bluetooth locator network that Locator Bluetooth tags will use to communicate their locations back to their owners.
It will also help customers locate compatible Telstra mobile phones and SIM-enabled tablets on their Telstra account, and enable them to send tailored messages to lost devices, directed at anyone who may have found the device, and play sounds to locate devices in hard to see places.
Telstra says the Bluetooth locator network will continue to grow over the next few years and that already more than 6,000 Telstra vehicles and 6,000 taxis travelling more than one million kilometres each day are fitted with Bluetooth locator technology.
Leveraging one million Wi-Fi access points
Telstra says the WiFi tags will use a network of over one million Telstra WiFi access points, made up of those on Telstra payphones, other Telstra public Wi-Fi hotspots and Telstra Wi-Fi routers in the homes of customers that have opted to allow public Internet access through those routers.
The small Bluetooth tag and the larger dog collar/bike Wi-fi/Bluetooth tag were both developed in conjunction with Australian company LX Group and manufactured in China.
Telstra said both had firmware that could be updated over the air, and that all communication with the devices was encrypted. The small tag uses a replaceable button battery, which can be accessed only with the use of a special key. Telstra claims a four month battery live. The larger device is rechargeable via a USB port.
The tags will be used in conjunction with a smartphone app, separate from the Telstra 24 x7 app that will enable users to identify the location of their tags on a map, check its battery status and share that information with other users if they choose.
Telstra anticipating strong demand
Michele Garra, head of innovation and strategy in Telstra Consumer and Small Business said: “We believe the category is ready to scale. At the moment about three percent of Australians are using some sort of locating tag product and Telsyte predicts that to grow to 18 percent by 2022.
Telstra also quoted research from Telsyte suggesting loss rates of personal items to be very high. “In the past 12 months Australians have reported losing the following items: 30 percent keys; 24 percent remote control; 23 percent mobile phone; 14 percent wallet’ 14 percent children’s belongings.
“And Australians said they would be interested in using location products on the following items: 44 percent mobile phone; 41 percent vehicles; 41 percent keys;32 percent wallet.”
An existing competitor
Australian company Leash IT operates a similar Bluetooth based location service but its Bluetooth network is much more limited than Telstra’s: it relies on the Leash IT app running on the smartphones of other Leash IT users.
* In his announcement of Telstra’s half year results in February, CEO Andy Penn IoT said IoT was a source of new growth and with revenues approaching $200m Telstra’s IoT business was “one of the most successful IoT businesses globally.” However this $200m represented just 1.5 percent of Telstra’s $13b half year revenues. At the launch of Telstra’s 2022 strategy in June Penn said: “We’ll grow our IoT business 30 percent this year. We’ll add 300,000 new SIOs. But importantly, we’re developing a range of exciting new solutions with our customers.”
