Stockholm, Sweden — Malaysian operator DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi) is to implement the Ericsson Device Connection Platform, delivered as a service by Ericsson. The solution will provide DiGi and its customers with the ability to deploy, manage and monetise millions of M2M and consumer-electronics devices.
The Ericsson Device Connection Platform will allow DiGi to increase revenue and cut both operational costs and time-to-market. The machine-to-machine (M2M) platform will, says Ericsson, enable DiGi’s enterprise customers to monitor devices anytime and anywhere, access information quickly and accurately, and integrate easily into existing systems over the complete device life cycle.
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) will also use its local and global consulting and systems integration expertise to accelerate DiGi’s M2M go-to-market plans, while the ecosystem created by the Device Connection Platform will help generate business growth for the operator as well as its customers and partners.
For a mobile operator, M2M business means deploying and managing large numbers of mobile subscriptions on an industrial scale. The new platform will provide flexibility to DiGi’s partners and customers in deploying and managing mobile subscriptions for solutions that include M2M functionality. As part of the global Telenor Group, which also owns leading M2M company Telenor Connexion, DiGi can draw on more than 12 years of M2M experience.
According to Akash Das, DiGi’s Head of M2M (Strategy), the company already provides M2M services to a variety of customers across several industry verticals, all of which will now be gradually migrated to the Ericsson Device Connection Platform. He says: “This strategic development will allow us to strengthen our M2M offerings to our growing customer base, and it will ready our customers for new business strategies that rely on a broad spectrum of devices as data services become more mature in Malaysia. This new platform will enable DiGi to offer the highest level of reliable and flexible M2M connectivity services to our enterprise customers.”
Todd Ashton, president of Ericsson Malaysia and Sri Lanka, says: “As DiGi’s M2M partner, we will support its strategy of growing to become one of Malaysia’s leading operators in the M2M services arena. This partnership is in line with Ericsson’s vision of the Networked Society where any device that benefits from a connection is connected, making people’s lives and businesses better and more efficient. We expect that there will be more than 50 billion devices connected around the world by 2020, mainly using M2M connectivity. Enterprises often have to address multiple challenges that hinder them from launching services using connected devices. Partnering with Ericsson removes those barriers, so an M2M business can scale up quickly.”
Ericsson is already providing its M2M solution to numerous other operators around the world including 3UK, TeliaSonera, MegaFon, Swisscom and XL Axiata.
Yankee Group VP of Research, Brian Partridge commented: “DiGi Telecommunications choosing Ericsson to jump into the M2M fray is not surprising given that Telenor is the Malaysian telco’s majority owner. Telenor famously divested its M2M connectivity platform assets to Ericsson back in 2011. Ericsson has been aggressive in its pursuit of deals like this one as it seeks to establish a strong global foothold for its M2M platform and services, in competition with current industry leader Jasper Wireless and the internally developed platforms at Tier 1 MNOs.
“Outsourcing M2M operations is an especially attractive option for companies such as DiGi Telecommunications that want to get their feet wet in the M2M business without incurring a massive upfront investment in capital and human resources,” Partridge added. “Malaysia is presently at the beginning stages of its M2M adoption curve but we expect cellular connection growth as a result of government mandates and private sector demand across several verticals.”
