Internet-connected
cars and other everyday products have become the fastest-growing part
of the U.S. wireless industry, adding more links than mobile phones and
tablets combined in the second quarter. AT&T Inc. …
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Cars Drive Past Mobile Phones, Tablets as Wireless Growth Leader
Internet-connected
cars and other everyday products have become the fastest-growing part
of the U.S. wireless industry, adding more links than mobile phones and
tablets combined in the second quarter.
AT&T Inc. dominated
revenue in connected devices, with the company connecting cars to its
network at twice the pace of tablets, analyst Chetan Sharma said in his
quarterly wireless industry report.
AT&T should reach 10 million connected car subscriptions soon, he
estimated. Verizon Communications Inc. is actively adding connected
devices as well.
For
carriers, the so-called Internet of Things -- a world in which
everything from garage doors to cars to light bulbs connect to the web
-- has become a major source of revenue growth at a time when
phone-related business has slackened.
Verizon
has been a distant second to AT&T in connected cars, but is
mounting a big entry in a related area -- connected trucks. Last week,
the company agreed to buy Fleetmatics for $2.2 billion, going from No. 2
to eventually No. 1 in the field. According to the company, Verizon has
partnerships with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Hino Motors Ltd.,
Isuzu Motors Ltd., Mack Trucks, and Volvo AB’s Class 8 truck unit. Connected
cars can transmit your location to emergency services in case of an
accident. They may also be able to wirelessly link to your house to turn
on air conditioning or disengage a home security system.
Fewer new phone and tablet subscriptions are being added than in the past, Sharma said. To find growth, Verizon has been expanding
into markets such as mobile-content distribution with its recent
purchases of AOL Inc. and Yahoo! Inc., while AT&T has been pushing
satellite TV with DirecTV and into connected cars.
“IoT is being
driven (literally) by connected cars but also the long tail of other
devices in medicine, drones, industrial,” Sharma said in an e-mail.
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