Because of the impact connected devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications will have on the automotive, education, health, and “smart city” industries in Asia, it is estimated that 1.5 billion new mobile connections will be added to the Internet by 2017. The growth of having a so-called “Connected Life,” or connecting people to everything around them via mobile products and services, has sparked the need for more connections.
These projections are made in a report developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC www.pwc.com) and the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA www.gsma.com) and released at Mobile Asia Expo 2013. The report states that reducing traffic congestion through the use of mobile-enabled vehicle telematics could add to US $22 billion in economic productivity in China alone. Installing mobile-enabled smart meters in India could potentially save enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes. The adoption of mobile technologies for remote monitoring within the Japanese healthcare system could also reportedly save the country $10 billion. Even the use of mobile-enhanced learning in South Korea could reduce individual lifetime education costs by over $12,000.