As wireless connectivity strength becomes a more important part of everyday life, wireless vendors are upgrading their router performance, speed and reliability in hopes to stay ahead in the market.

Solution providers need to partner with the right vendor to capitalize on the growing Wi-Fi market.

Steve Collins, head of product development at Sydney, Australia-based NetComm Wireless vendor, says his company is the right choice for VARs seeking success in the telecom, machine-to-machine (M2M) and rural broadband markets.

On March 24, AT&T certified NetComm's 4G Wi-Fi M2M Router – NTC-140W-01 – for deployment in the U.S., which delivers the power of LTE to M2M applications. Designed to enhance connectivity and remote communication, NTC-140W-01 supports high data rates and provides a significant speed and reliability advantage to devices, machines and other assets on AT&T's network, said Collins.

Collins tells IT Best of Breed about the ins-and-outs of the current routing market, where solution providers are making money, and the opportunities in rural broadband markets.

What is the most challenging concern for companies entering the M2M routing market?

Unlike the consumer market, the industrial M2M market needs products that -- once installed -- will keep working for at least 10 years.

The most challenging concern for companies that entered the M2M market a few years ago is the announced 2G sunset. Some companies are still reeling from the fact that they will soon have to replace their 2G only devices with a new device – even though their 2G devices are still working. And changing to a different carrier isn't the answer either, because it still requires a truck roll to a device which could be installed at a remote location.

These companies are concerned that by upgrading to 3G, they will face the exact same problem in a few years from now; so they are pushing hardware vendors to offer 4G solutions at price points closer to 3G so that they can future-proof their solution by upgrading to 4G instead of 3G.

Are you seeing the routing manufactures designing more and more products for rugged deployments?

Yes, and no. Industry analysts expect that an additional 50 billion devices/things will be connected to the Internet over the next few years. This 50 billion will consist of billions of consumer grade, commercial grade, industrial grade and automotive grade devices.

NetComm Wireless specializes in the development of industrial and commercial grade IoT devices and will continue to add more rugged devices to its M2M portfolio, while some of the other players will focus on building and expanding their range of non-ruggedized devices for the consumer and automotive markets.