TeliaSonera has signed the cooperation agreement with France Telecom-Orange and Deutsche Telekom to increase the quality of service and interoperability for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
The agreement, which was initially signed by France Telecom-Orange and Deutsche Telekom in February 2011, covered France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and more recently The Netherlands and the UK through Everything Everywhere.
This deal will see the combined footprint extend to cover TeliaSonera’s geographical reach, including Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania.
Customers will benefit from cross-border roaming and enhanced service quality, across all countries included in the agreement. The continuous connection quality and network interoperability to be delivered by this operator consortium, will ensure M2M services for both machines and goods on the move (in the transportation and automotive industries, for example), and for customers whose business models require continuous access (eHealth providers, for example).
“With this agreement, now three groups are significantly pushing the boundaries of the M2M ecosystem,” said Anne-Marie Thiollet, executive vice president Enterprise Line of Business, Orange Business Services. “Global availability and reliability will spur the commercial adoption of M2M services and stimulate new innovations to the forefront. We are happy to welcome TeliaSonera as a member of our partnership and look forward to other carriers joining us in this endeavour; only by working together can we make the great promise of M2M a reality.”
A key feature of the agreement is the incident and troubleshooting capability that France Telecom-Orange, Deutsche Telekom and TeliaSonera will be improving to ensure the best quality of roaming services to their customers.
Because machine-to-machine communication is business critical for M2M customers, all M2M roaming services will have a dedicated support component, significantly improving previous industry attempts at troubleshooting and providing much shorter repair time compared to regular procedures.
“M2M has a very large economic potential and this cooperation with three of the strongest brands in the market, enhances our international offers,” says Håkan Dahlström, president of Mobility Services, TeliaSonera. “We know that the services connected to M2M communication in many cases is vital for business and puts clear requirements on us as a communication operator.”
Enhanced M2M interoperability will also be maintained as the three partners conduct joint testing to harmonise module standards. Module certification will enable the best possible interoperability between module and network. This will lead to a stable module performance in all countries covered by the three groups and enable rapid integration of the modules into M2M customers’ devices and machines.
“M2M communication is an enabling technology for e-Energy, e-Health, Connected Home and the Connected Car, for example, to bring about the internet of things. The M2M market has been growing exponentially lately, with potential for enterprises to drive new business, improve performance, reduce cost, and protect the environment,” said Dr. Rainer Deutschmann, senior vice president Mobile Products, Deutsche Telekom. “With our growing partnership, especially multinational companies will now have a more efficient and reliable path to implement global M2M solutions.”
