Ericsson and China Mobile signed a strategic agreement to cooperate on the Internet of Things at the China Mobile Global Partner Conference in Guangzhou, China on Dec. 20, 2016, though the official announcement was made Thursday.
The two companies aim to start in-depth cooperation to manage connections efficiently, provide a consistent service to global enterprise customers and to explore new Internet of Things markets.
China Mobile will use the Ericsson Device Connectivity Platform to streamline the process for provisioning, as well as deploy services to capitalize on new business opportunities.
With the Ericsson platform, China Mobile will be able to integrate resources of roaming partners and offer global enterprise customers reliable connectivity based on service level agreements. Other benefits include a common and unified approach to customer portals and selection of access network.
Ericsson’s IoT connectivity management platform enables enterprises to manage connectivity on a global scale through-out the full device lifecycle. For enterprises, the platform lowers the cost of operations by simplifying and improving device production and distribution processes; providing true real-time monitoring and control over connectivity performance; and removing complexity by providing a single, uniform interface and integration across multiple mobile operator networks.
This is accomplished by applying a radically new architecture, using a single Mobile Core Network across global operators.
For operators, the Ericsson Device Connection Platform gives them a differentiating tool to target a new growth market: IoT. Delivered from Ericsson’s cloud with pre-integrated global backhaul connectivity, deployment is swift, minimizing time-to-revenue.
The Ericsson Device Connection Platform launched in 2008 has used by over 24 operators and supports 1,700 industry customers. Ericsson also works together with the Bridge Alliance and the Global M2M Association to realize the vision of a seamless customer experience with worldwide coverage and superior quality of service for IoT applications.
“China Mobile expects to have 200 million IoT connections by 2017. We stick to the strategy of open cooperation with our partners for win-win results,” said Yuejia Sha, executive vice president at China Mobile. “China Mobile strengthens the collaboration with global leading enterprises of advanced platform, application and intelligent hardware to drive the rapid development of our industry, and provides superior applications and services to our customers.”
“We are very proud to be selected by China Mobile as a strategic partner for Internet of Things,” said Chris Houghton, Head of Region North East Asia, Ericsson. “These types of applications will also help promote the development and deployment of 5G technology. We look forward to supporting China Mobile and developing this business while accelerating large-scale deployments of Internet of Things across the world.”
