The machine-to-machine market gained significant momentum today as seven mobile operators entered into an alliance to collaborate on services. The carriers – KPN, NTT DoCoMo; Rogers Communications; SingTel; Telefónica, through its Telefónica Digital unit; Telstra; and Vimpelcom – said they will partner on roaming and the development of other M2M services.
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Analysys Mason noted the agreement is another indication of the rapid, multi-national growth of M2M, which the analyst firm forecasts will hit 124.4 million device connections by the end of the year. If achieved, that would represent a new 2.1 billion connections this year, or a 37% compound annual growth rate.
The global alliance calls for global products featuring a unique SIM, a united Web interface and centralized management of status and usage of M2M devices globally. The deal will use Jasper Wireless’ Control Center and is expected to result in cost reduction and enhancement of user experience and convenience.
“It is noteworthy that each one [of seven carriers] has an M2M service delivery platform supplied by Jasper Wireless. Jasper is a vendor that has always advocated the benefits of interoperability, the acquisition engine component of Jasper’s offering acting as a pipeline to funnel business leads between its fraternity of carrier customers,” noted Jamie Moss, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, in a statement.
Moss added that the intent by carriers to work together underscores the two most critical features of the M2M market: the need to establish partnership and the need to focus on ones own core competency for the common benefit of all involved.
Analysys Mason said it expects the seven carriers to provide connectivity solutions and a variety of M2M managed and value-added services including service level agreements, systems integration and managed security services.
A recent survey from Informa and SAP of more than 250 global stakeholders found that seven out of every 10 CSP respondents believe M2M will generate 5% of their total revenues by 2015.
