Sprint announced that its Curiosity IoT platform will soon be available for customers in Australia following a partnership with Australia’s largest mobile network operator, Telstra.
Sprint said that the Curiosity IoT service is expected to be commercially available in Australia in the first half of 2020.
“Curiosity IoT will add a new layer of capability to customer’s IoT needs in Australia,” said Ivo Rook, senior vice president of IoT and product development for Sprint. “We are thrilled to be working together with Telstra to extend our access with full visibility across deployments, helping our customers benefit from the Curiosity IoT platform when their business takes them to Australia.”
“Our agreement with Sprint makes it effortless for IoT customers with international needs to implement solutions in Australia, with access to local in-country profiles,” said Gerhard Loots, head of global IoT solutions for Telstra. “Our local profiles will provide Curiosity IoT customers with a local point-of-presence in Australia which will be very helpful as a service differentiator, especially for latency sensitive applications.”
In related news, Sprint also announced it will launch a redesigned Sprint IoT Factory, an Internet of Things (IoT) marketplace for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
The e-commerce platform allows customers to solve operational challenges with ready-to-deploy IoT products or with a fully customized solution to meet their specific needs, pain points, budgets and preferences, Sprint said. The newly redesigned Sprint IoT Factory will be available in early 2020.
“Small businesses are looking for simple technology that can save them time and reduce costs. The revamped, easy-to-navigate design of the Sprint IoT Factory streamlines the problem-solving process, giving business owners confidence as they select solutions to manage their operations and customer processes,” said Ivo Rook. “The Sprint IoT Factory provides a one-stop shop to guide decision makers through every step to reach the best solution to meet their needs, while presenting costs in a clear manner.”
Sprint noted that the new offering will allow customers to find and purchase solutions by solution type, function or industry to meet needs of all kinds – from asset tracking to refrigeration management to data security and more.
Customers can tailor a solution to fit their business need and tackle challenges experienced by businesses of every size, Sprint added.
Sprint also highlighted that no technical expertise is required to install or utilize solutions from IoT Factory as the IoT-based solutions are designed to enable small business owners to activate each system by following a couple of easy steps, with almost no configuration needed.
Sprint IoT Factory also enables businesses to consume their IoT products over a device-agnostic platform, regardless of whether they were bought from the Sprint IoT Factory or connected via open APIs.