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Interview with John Reardon, CEO, Choctaw Telecom - Speaker at Global IoT Conference - March 2017 Posted on : Feb 27 - 2017

We feature speakers at Global IoT Conference March 27 - 29, 2017 to catch up and find out what he or she is working on now and what's coming next. This week we're talking to John Reardon, CEO, Choctaw Telecom.

Interview with John Reardon

1. Tell us about yourself and your background.
I am the Managing Partner of Choctaw Telecom, LLC, the operator of wireless FCC licenses used by IoT solutions providers in energy, utility, transportation and other critical industries.  I have been a leader in telecom and software companies for the past 20 years and serve on the board of MindShare, a DC-based network of 930 CEOs.  I am a 1993 graduate of Columbia Law School and worked for a few years as a telecom attorney, before becoming a general counsel in 1997 and then president of a client's business in 2000.  I have been in business ever since. 

2.  What have you been working on recently?
Choctaw develops exclusive spectrum with IoT partners.  We work with solutions providers, such as railroads in Southern California, to provide state of the art solutions over our exclusive spectrum.  We are looking for new partners that have solutions and need access to private, exclusive spectrum for their customer's needs.

3. Tell me about the right tool you used recently to solve customer problem?
Southern Californai Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink) needed exclusive spectrum for anti-collision systems.  We provided that spectrum for them, first under a lease and then as a sale to them.

4. Where are we now today in terms of the state of IoT spectrum, and where do you think we’ll go over the next five years?
IoT spectrum consists of three categories: 1. unlicensed; 2. cellular carriers; and 3. private licensed spectrum.  While the unlicensed spectrum consists of the most common usages, such as Sigfox, Ingenu, and Senet, that spectrum will be overwhelmed by demand, leaving critical applications vulnerable to security issues and interference by third parties.  Cellular systems are built for mass market consumers, so the pricing and priority for critical applications such as pipelines, utility grids, connected cars, and highways, will be lacking.  Private spectrum in the 200 MHz, 700 MHz and 900 MHz bands will fill a role in important critical industrial type applications.

5. What would be your pitch to folks out there to hire your Organization? Why does your organization matter in the world
We provide a highly secure, quality wireless license for critical applications such as connected cars, smart grid, and other machine to machine communications.

6. What are some of the best takeaways that the attendees can have from your "Spectrum Needs for Internet of Things Solutions" talk?  
That unlicensed spectrum is suitable for mass market applications where interference is acceptable and data need not be secured. That carriers only fill a certain need where ruthless priority of communications is not needed and pricing does not matter as much.  A third alternative, private spectrum, exists for lease or purchase by those building nationwide or regional IoT infrastructure, such as smart cities, railroads, smart highways, etc.

7. What are the top 5 IoT Use cases in enterprises?  
Connected cars, railroad train control and monitoring, energy pipelines and well-head monitoring, smart grid for utilities, and lighting for smart cities.

8. Which company do you think is winning the American IoT spectrum race?  
No one is winning, the market is expanding so fast that there are multiple segments to serve: unlicensed for mass market global consumer products, cellular for the in-between needs, and private spectrum for the high end or critical infrastructure needs.

9. Any closing remarks?  
This is an exciting time to develop solutions for industrial IoT.  The propagation characteristics of Choctaw's spectrum, and similar private spectrum, means that fewer towers and less operating costs are needed when compared to higher spectrum bands, such as 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz and 5.9 GHs.  These operational costs are often overlooked, but they are significant and permanent costs for IoT systems.  Therefore, licensed spectrum may be cheaper in the long run than using short distance unlicensed solutions.