Telia Sonera | July 7, 2011 | Press Release
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 initially was signed by France Telecom-Orange and Deutsche Telekom in February 2011 to cover France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg, has since added The Netherlands and most recently the UK through Everything Everywhere to its purview. The global footprint will now extend to cover TeliaSonera’s geographical reach, including Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania.
Customers will benefit from operability across borders and enhanced M2M service quality in the mobile networks of the cooperation agreement parties. While roaming agreements have been managed bi-laterally only, concentrated within single markets, this multi-lateral cooperation agreement will provide roaming services with enhanced service quality across the countries that already agree to participate to the agreement, thus enhancing customer experience. Continuous connection quality and network interoperability 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 endeavor; 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 put clear requirements on us as a communication operator. The cooperation will enhance a better customer experience cross border in our markets and increase quality in our offers that will support the development of M2M services,” Håkan Dahlström concludes.
Enhanced M2M interoperability will also be maintained as the three partners conduct joint testing to harmonize module standards. Module certification will enable the most optimized interoperability between module and network. This will lead to a stable module performance in all countries covered by the three groups, enabling a quicker and more optimized integration of the modules in 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 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.”
