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vendors from playing a dominant role in
China, Wu says, adding that the government will
probably back Chinese standards with regard to
the Internet of Things as well.
“So vendors should be proactively involved
in the development of these Chinese standards
from the beginning, in order to ensure their longterm
success in the era of the Internet of Things,”
she says.
An indigenous Chinese approach to this market
could strengthen China’s position in technology,
particularly in contributing to international
standardization bodies.
In addition to the sensor technology center
in Wuxi, the Ministry of Industry and Information
recently collaborated with the local Wuxi
government and Jiangsu Province to create a
national r&d center devoted to the Internet of
Things.
Meanwhile, China Mobile, China Telecom and
China Unicom have plunged into – and taken the
lead in – the Internet of Things market. Wu says
these companies are well-positioned to stay at
the top of the value chain. “The operators regard
the Internet of Things as a deep ocean of new
growth opportunities,” she says.
China’s largest operator, China Mobile, already
counts 5 million machine-to-machine (m2m)
terminals in its network – about 60 percent more
than 2009, Wu says. The operator’s m2m offering
is largely devoted to electric metering and automobile
telematics.
Che Wu Tong, a car telematics and locationbased
application for vehicles, is China Mobile’s
most widely used m2m service, enabling vehicle
management and dispatch, location queries, route
optimization and telephone ordering for an esti-
38 EBR #3 2010
TELECOM OPERATORS ARE leading
the way toward an Internet of
Things in China, and the Chinese
government is considering speeding
up the development.
Yu Xiaohui, deputy chief engineer
of China Academy of
Telecommunication Research
(catr) of the Ministry
of Industry and Information
Technology
(miit) and the head of
catr’s Economy and
mated 1.1 million customers, including bus
companies, taxi operators and express delivery
companies.
Chongqing Mobile is the base for parent
company China Mobile’s m2m business and its
capabilities will be upgraded to operate the
platform for the entire network. To date, five provincial
subsidiaries have set up their own m2m
platforms, Wu says.
Agriculture is another promising area for m2m
communications, however small the scale may
be at present, she says. China Mobile has piloted
livestock tracking, which enables end-to-end
traceability of meat to ensure food safety; as well
as remote greenhouse monitoring, to ensure the
right temperature, co2 concentration and humidity.
By October 2009, as many as 80,000 terminals
were involved in these trials.
China Telecom has trialed m2m applications
in dozens of industries, including transportation,
energy and environmental sustainability. Some
notable examples are the Toyota G-Book service
and the General Motors OnStar service over
the operator’s cmda network. The operator also
has 17,000 m2m terminals involved in trials of
a video surveillance system for oil storage and
measurement, Wu says.
In the financial sector, China Unicom has
launched a service enabling customers to use
handsets to make payments from their Bank of
Communications account.
“Operators have early-mover advantages,” Wu
says. “Also, telecom operators are much more integrated
– there are only three players – and
therefore more influential than players in other
sectors in China.” ●
YU XIAOHUI:
“M2M is only one part of a big picture”
Policy Research Institute, says the Chinese government
is exploring how the Internet of Things
can raise living standards and improve industrial
productivity in a “smart and green” way.
What does the Internet of Things mean for
China?
In the past year the Chinese leadership has mentioned
the Internet of Things on many occasions.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has talked about it
many times and President Hu Jintao has also
talked about it. When we talk about the meaning
of the Internet of Things, we have to put it in a