Mexico Getting Ready for More of M2M Technology and IoT

Latin America has been considered in full-growth pace as far as M2M development is concerned. However, its adoption of this technology is still much slower than the rest of the world. Nevertheless, Latin America, particularly Mexico has one of the largest number of social media users in the West. This only proves that Mexico could help drive the M2M market in Latin America. According to Cisco's Visual Networking Index, Mexico will have 84.4 million machine-to-machine (M2M) connections by 2018 from 30.7 million in 2013. This will account for 27% of all connected devices in 2018 and it is forecast to expand at CAGR of 22.5% from 2013 to 2018.

The recent structural reforms in the country could possibly drive this growth as well. Mexico has been expecting these reforms for many years and its enforcement has caused much optimism among entrepreneurs and investors, both local and international. The telecommunications industry is sure to benefit from these reforms. It will create two new broadcast networks that will imply great investment.

According to Mexican Business Web, this has already aroused the attention of capitalist from Canada to invest on Energy and Telecommunications in the country. Vice President of the Canadian Council of Directors Executives (CCCE), Eric Miller said, "Our members are part of the largest companies in Canada, and many of them are investing in Mexico, as in the case of TransCanada or Scotiabank, so we see many opportunities in the country as part of the process of economic reforms."

Although it has been previously noted that in 2010, mobile telephony penetration in Mexico is 84.3% and approximately 103% in Latin America, according to Frost and Sullivan. They predicted that M2M technology could create a huge market evolution in Mexico. Washington-based analyst, Northeast Group LLC, revealed in Mexico Smart Grid: Market Forecast (2011–2020), that Mexico will become one of the major smart grid markets in Latin America. The study reported that the Mexican smart grid market can reach up to $8.3 billion in 2020. Companies such as Telefonica has already began investing and bringing in Smart M2M solutions to the country when they announced that their Machine-to-Machine in house management system is already available in Mexico and other Latin American countries like Argentina and Chile. Although the M2M industry in Mexico and other parts of Latin America is still in the process of maturing and at the very early age of development, the possibilities for the Internet of Things and M2M technology in these regions are limitless, especially with these new reforms.