Swisscom has joined the Global M2M Association (GMA), a cooperation of seven international tier-one operators (Deutsche Telekom, Orange, TeliaSonera, Telecom Italia, Bell Canada, SoftBank, and most recently Swisscom) in the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) market . Established in 2011, the GMA enables its members to offer their customers business benefits such as a globally seamless customer experience and enhanced M2M roaming services. Furthermore, the GMA optimizes interoperability across borders through unified incident management processes, harmonized modules testing and certification procedures. The association assumes responsibility for the harmonization of markets and ensures compliance which enables quicker and improved integration into customer machines and devices.
Alexander Lautz, Senior Vice President M2M at Deutsche Telekom and one of the founding members of the GMA, states: “The GMA demonstrates our intention to work together more closely in the interest of our customers and the M2M ecosystem. With Swisscom, we are gaining one of the M2M pioneers whose vision for the market complements well that of the GMA.” The addition of another tier one operator allows the GMA to further ensure that customers have the best footprint for a lean and effective interaction of global M2M services through integrated business processes and a single point of contact.
Gerhard Schedler, Head of M2M / IoT Centre of Competence at Swisscom says: “The unified M2M connectivity management platform among GMA members allows improved and simplified processes. For instance, the status of connected products throughout the lifecycle – from production, testing, shipping and distribution to the end-user will be automatically adapted and easily manageable.” The Multi-Domestic Service operated by GMA members in particular will open up new opportunities for large, globally operating M2M customers demanding high data volumes. These M2M devices will be equipped with an embedded SIM card that functions just like a local SIM card in the networks operated by the respective GMA members. This ensures that best network coverage is guaranteed, while reducing the complexity of the global connectivity management for customers.