How cellular technology transforms ATMs, kiosks, and vending machines, enabling smarter operations, enhanced security, and seamless customer experiences worldwide.
by Guy Neumann
The adoption rate of self-service machines has significantly increased over the last 40 years. In the 1980s, they were relatively limited, primarily consisting of vending machines and ATMs. Today, their variety has grown, as businesses have integrated self-service options into their operations, including self-checkout systems in grocery stores and interactive kiosks in restaurants and airports. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the adoption of self-service solutions as businesses sought to minimize person-to-person interactions and cope with the labor shortage caused by the pandemic. Multiple researches predict the value of different sectors of the global self-service machine market to more than double by the end of the decade.
Cellular connectivity is one of the main reasons behind this growth. In the 2010s, early adopters began integrating cellular technology to monitor machine performance remotely. This allowed operators to track inventory, receive alerts for maintenance, and optimize routes for service. The rise of mobile payment solutions, facilitated by cellular connectivity, enabled self-service machines to accept various payment methods, which broadened the customer base and increased convenience. As IoT gained traction, connected self-service machines became smarter and began collecting data on user interactions, preferences, and peak usage times, allowing businesses to tailor offerings and improve efficiency.
Today, cellular technology enables remote software updates, ensuring machines are always up-to-date with the latest features and security patches without requiring physical maintenance. With improved cellular connectivity, businesses can utilize real-time data analytics to enhance decision-making, which allows for personalized customer experiences, targeted promotions, and dynamic pricing strategies based on demand. Enhanced encryption and security protocols in cellular networks ensure secure data transmission between the machines and backend servers. But what is probably most important – cellular connectivity helps service providers deploy ATMs, vending machines, kiosks and other self-service systems in locations where wired connectivity is not possible or feasible.
There are various cellular-enabled capabilities that can be used literally in any self-service machine to increase its functionality or efficiency, such as cashless payment processing or remote updates. But let’s look at several key use cases:
ATMs
Automated teller machines that help people withdraw cash, check balances, and perform other banking transactions require a reliable internet connection for transaction processing. ATMs in remote locations rely on cellular networks to ensure reliable access to banking services, and even the ones located in busy city districts can use them as a backup option. Robust failure-proof cellular connectivity allows ATMs to update balances and transaction statuses in real time, and what is no less crucial, it enhances security features for transactions, ensuring data is encrypted and secure.
Vending Machines
Machines that dispense snacks, beverages, and other products upon payment have evolved quite a lot since they were invented almost two hundred years ago. Today, they use cellular connectivity for inventory management, monitoring, and cashless payment options. Operators can remotely monitor inventory levels, sales data, and machine status in real time, which guarantees timely restocking and maintenance. Cellular connectivity also allows for dynamic pricing adjustments based on demand or special promotions.
Kiosks for Retail and Ticketing
Interactive terminals are widely used for services like ticketing, information retrieval, and check-in at airports or events. Oftentimes placed in temporary or outdoor locations, these kiosks rely on cellular connection to access databases, check stock availability and provide updates to central systems to ensure accurate inventory data, as well as process payments and provide immediate transaction confirmations.
Food Ordering Systems
Common in fast-food restaurants, these self-service machines allow customers to place orders without interaction with cashiers and need connectivity for order processing and menu updates. In locations where wired communication infrastructure is unavailable or in the event of connectivity failure, food ordering kiosks can connect via cellular networks. Secure payment processing through cellular networks is also essential, as it ensures quick and reliable transactions.
Self-Checkout Machines
Solutions allowing customers to scan and pay for items without cashier assistance are often considered to be reinventing customer service for retail stores that now have to compete with digital platforms. These machines require a connection to the store’s network for inventory and payment processing, and cellular connectivity can be used both as a main connectivity option or as a backup. It allows for continuous tracking of product availability and sales data, enabling efficient inventory management, and helps improve customer experience.
Parking Payment Machines
Cellular networks play an important role in smart parking scenarios. While fixed lines installation may be problematic and costly, cellular connectivity allows quick deployments literally anywhere without additional permits and paperwork. Aside from simply allowing customers to pay for parking, self-service machines can provide real-time updates on available parking spaces and help operators diagnose issues remotely, reducing downtime and improving service efficiency.
Connectivity Requirements
In all use cases, cellular connectivity is vital for enabling real-time data exchange, improving user experience, ensuring security, and optimizing operational efficiency. As technology advances, the reliance on cellular connectivity for self-service machines will likely continue to grow. There are, however, a few requirements that may be especially critical:
Coverage
Stable connectivity is crucial for all connected self-service machines. Since cellular connectivity is the only viable option for deployments in rural locations and areas with no fixed lines of communications, coverage is one of the major concerns. Though there are cellular networks almost everywhere, each of them inevitably has its weak spots. These must be taken into consideration when enterprises deploy ATMs, payment terminals or other self-serving machines.
Latency
While not being that important in some of the usage scenarios, such as asset maintenance, latency is critical in any system that involves real-time data transfer, be it payment processing or checking in at a self-service kiosk at the airport. Cellular connectivity, especially 5G networks, can provide low latency, but technically it would depend on your connectivity provider’s core network architecture.
Regulatory Compliance
With all technical aspects taken care of, enterprises may still have problems when deploying smart infrastructure solutions, especially with cross-border deployments. Depending on the region, legislation may stipulate certain restrictions on connectivity and data transfer, and it is important to comply with local data sovereignty and data protection regulations.
Webbing’s Solution
Webbing offers a connectivity solution that ensures global access to reliable and high-quality internet, with low latency and the best of class coverage. It provides secure and continuous internet connection, delivering a streamlined, centralized, and scalable means of deploying, controlling and monitoring all kinds of self-service machines.
As a global MVNO, Webbing’s network of 600+ mobile operators guarantees world-wide coverage. It allows to roam on several carriers’ networks in every region, solving the problem of weak spots that any mobile network may have and ensuring full coverage and continuous connectivity even at remote locations.
Webbing is a global full MVNO, and its distributed core network with local breakouts, multiple network solution, and data server redundancy can provide connectivity stability and low latency. As such, Webbing’s network is well suited to support mission-critical, high-data consumption type of use cases. It also allows for all types of localization, so it’s easy to comply with local and regional connectivity regulation requirements. Webbing can also seamlessly localize deployments utilizing Remote SIM Provisioning even in heavily regulated markets, such as Turkey.
Our eSIM solution guarantees failover connectivity with the capability of using multiple mobile carrier profiles, easily changing carriers at any time with zero integration, and an option to fall back from a failing profile to a different profile without any need to communicate with a remote server or deal with multiple SIM cards.
A flexible approach to data packages allows us to tailor our connectivity offering for every customer based on the type of connected devices and their data consumption needs as well as the locations where the devices are used, aiming at overall optimization of the total cost of operations for the client.
Our solutions help enterprises overcome their connectivity problems and reduce time to market for global deployments, providing the benefits of roaming with multiple carrier options in every country, and seamless transition between carriers, while maintaining low rates and low latency on a global scale with a single SIM.
Reach out to learn more about our connectivity solutions.
