Cox plans to deploy 500,000 IoT sensors | Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
Cox Communications, the nation’s third-largest cable TV and broadband company, has gotten into the internet of things in a big way with an initial deployment of 45,000 sensors for its parent company’s automotive auction business. That deployment is set to reach half a million sensors before the end of the year.
Like its rival cable providers and telco ISPs, Cox views the internet of things as a new line of revenue. And this time, it wants to provide more than just the connectivity. Through its Cox2M business (created roughly 18 months ago) it offers connectivity, sensors, software, and services.
Cox2M puts information on both Google’s Cloud or Microsoft’s Azure Cloud. It works with hardware companies to buy the sensors it plans to use in deployments, and will even build custom software for clients. It’s essentially a services business from the broadband and pay-TV provider.
Cox is not alone. AT&T has been trying to offer more than just a pipe for IoT customers for the last five years or so. In some cases it has succeeded, but in others it’s just the pipe. On the enterprise side, Comcast has been playing around with offering a LoRa-based IoT network through a subsidiary called MachineQ. All around the world, operators of data networks are gearing up to provide connectivity for cars, sensors, and the billions of random devices connected to the internet.
When a vehicle comes in to be auctioned, the folks at the gate of the auction house input its VIN and other data. With the new fleet tracking, the worker who enters in the car’s info also plugs in the connected sensor to the car’s on-board diagnostics port and ties that sensor to the car. Now Manheim knows where that car is at all times. Manheim has more than 80 auction house locations and between half a million and 900,000 cars running through their auctions at any given point in time.