By Telecom Lead Team: Swisscom, mobile and
fixed operator in Switzerland, has entered into a partnership with
Ericsson to address the needs of enterprise customers from different
industries with machine-to-machine (M2M) offering.
Swisscom’s M2M
offering is based on Ericsson’s Device Connection Platform, which allows for
cost-efficient management of a large number of connected devices and machines.
The operator
said that the first trials will start in February 2012 and the commercial
introduction of services is scheduled for the summer 2012.
“We are
entering this partnership – in which Ericsson supports us not only with its M2M
connectivity platform, but also with its extensive experience of the worldwide
M2M market – with the clear ambition to provide our customers with the kind of
superior offering they are used to from us,” said Urs Schaeppi, head of
corporate business unit at Swisscom.
The operator
said that it will offer enterprises, from different industries both in
Switzerland as well as Swisscom customers abroad.
Swisscom said
that several hundred thousand machines are already connected in Switzerland and
it predicts that the number will grow significantly in the coming years, the
addressable market will comprise up to 100 million connected devices and machines
in Switzerland alone.
The Ericsson’s
device connection platform cloud service will allow Swisscom to grow flexibly
according to demand from its enterprise customers from different industries.
Its pay-as-you-grow business model allows the operator a fast time to market.
“We
have connected billions of people to date with mobile networks. Now we are
starting to address the Networked Society with our vision of more than 50
billion connected devices – primarily from M2M connectivity in all kinds of industries
– by 2020 worldwide,” said Anders Runevad, head of region western & central
Europe, Ericsson.
A few days
back, Swisscom entered into a five- year contract with Ericsson for mobile-network
modernization and upgrade to LTE.
As per the
agreement, Ericsson will modernize 6,000 mobile sites with its RBS 6000
multi-standard radio base stations and optimize all of Swisscom’s networks.
