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Telefónica adds M2M to its global smart cities solution

The Spanish telecom group Telefónica announced that it has integrated its machine-to-machine (M2M) services for smart cities into a global solution. The company said the new offering will create an open ecosystem which will enable town councils, urban service providers and entrepreneurs to integrate all the technology required by this type of service in a single solution.

The global release follows an announcement by Vivo, Telefónica’s Brazilian unit about its machine-to-machine strategy for the local market, where it aims to double accesses from 1 million to 2 million by the end of next year.

As part of Telefónica’s services for smart cities, the company also released two cooperation agreements, one with Streetline, a specialist in smart parking end-to-end solutions, and another with Libelium, a developer of M2M smart city sensors.

Under the terms of the Streetline agreement, Telefónica will provide M2M capabilities, financial services, sales network and customer support, while Streetline will provide smart parking services, applications and technical support. Streetline will be Telefónica’s primary smart parking partner.

The agreement with Libelium enables Telefónica to add the developer’s wireless sensors to its portfolio. This will allow integrators to create M2M applications based on real-time information flows quickly and at a low cost.

Telefónica said all M2M solutions will allow the creation of an open ecosystem which will generate new business models, helping entrepreneurs to develop their own applications. The company also noted that the addition will enable cities to improve management and optimize the services to citizens.

Currently, Telefónica’s portfolio has 27 different applications, including traffic management, smart parking, and environmental and agricultural monitoring.

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Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, Americasrprescott@rcrwireless.com Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.