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telefonica m2m: not just for b2b

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M2M: not just for B2B Digital communications are opening many new opportunities. This Spanish telecoms giant is taking full advantage of machine to machine (M2M) technology written by: Alan Swaby research by: David Brogan

Telef贸nica flagship store

Telefónica

O

n any visit to Spain, it’s impossible not to notice the presence of Telefónica.

This is the institutional face of Spain’s principal telecommunications company which is presented to both the business and domestic sectors through the ubiquitous Movistar brand. Since 2006, O2, another of the bigger players in the cellular mobile market, has also been part of the Telefónica family.

In fact these days, Telefónica has moved a long way from what was once a purely national operation, set up in 1924 as CTNE with the aid of ITT. At the end of World War II, the business was effectively nationalised with the Spanish government taking 79.6 percent of CTNE shares and by the 1960s, CTNE had become the #1 Spanish enterprise with 32,000 employees.

By the time the Spanish government sold its shareholding and Telefónica had returned to completely public hands in 1999, the business was already international with interests principally in South America but also in key markets throughout Europe and the Far East. Today it operates in 25 countries and has a workforce of 287,000, generating revenues of €63 billion.

Telefónica is well and truly one of the leading integrated telecommunication providers, ranked 6th largest among terrestrial mobile phone network operators as measured by number of subscribers. As of June 2012, Telefónica’s total number of customers amounted to 311.8 million and of these, more than 75 per cent came from outside its home market.

$8 Billion Estimated value of M2M market by the end of this year

Entrance to Telefónica’s flagship store

It’s with this global market very much in mind that Telefónica announced in July this year that it was pressing for the establishment of international collaboration and cooperation in the advancement of cellular M2M technology and had helped form an alliance of like-minded telecoms operators.

In itself, there is nothing new about M2M – or machine to machine – communications.

The concept has been around in one form or another for decades under numerous titles.

Effectively it refers to any technology that allows a remote device to transmit data to an application somewhere else, either by wired systems or wireless. Originally, this invariably meant a remote network of machines relaying information back to a central hub before being re-directed to a PC for the data to be processed.

Even cellular M2M has existed for over two decades since Siemens launched a GSM data module based on one of its mobile phones for M2M industrial applications, enabling machines to communicate over wireless networks. Modern M2M communication progressed with the expansion of IP networks across the world, opening new business opportunities.

Now Telefónica has teamed up with

Telefónica

Telefónica is known to both the business and domestic sectors through the ubiquitous Movistar brand

leading mobile operators in Europe, the East and Australasia who will discuss ways in which they can provide a seamless solution for the provision of M2M communications to multinational customers. Although the initial grouping consists of seven businesses, Telefónica has stressed that the initiative is open to other operators.

The goal is to stimulate the sale of M2M communications across a number of distinct high-potential industries such as consumer electronics, automotive, energy efficiency, etc, enabling the development of new business models, the creation of new

products and services and a reduction in operational costs for these target industries.

The Telefónica initiative is based on using an existing platform from Jasper Wireless in the USA—one of the leading exponents of M2M technology. Jasper estimates that the M2M market will be worth $8 billion by the end of this year and by building on its technology, network operators can quickly enter the M2M market.

The traditional markets for M2M applications, such as fleet management, vehicle telemetry and energy monitoring smart meters are expected to be joined by

“M2M refers to any technology that allows a remote device to transmit data to an application somewhere else”

other consumer directed offerings, many of which simply haven’t even been thought of yet, but will be once the technology is in place. As the Jasper platform has the advantage of being a cloud based service, both operators and customers should find faster times for products to get to market and continuous innovation.

Although Telefónica was a key mover in getting this alliance underway, it is very much a case of equality across partners, enabling all operators to benefit equally in

terms of providing better services at lower costs. The opportunity is there for all to develop partnerships with key regional players rather than expanding individually country by country.

And of course, it should never be forgotten that multi-operator schemes such as this are particularly attractive to key corporate customers who also work across global markets and want the simplicity of a compatible system for their communications across borders.

“The goal is to stimulate the sale of M2M communications across a number of distinct high-potential industries”

The CNSO (National Centre for Supervision and Operations) control room

Telefónica

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The above scheme is ideally suited for Telefónica’s global plans but the company is equally keen to develop M2M on the local scene. It has recently jointly invested €3 million in the Barcelona based technology company AddFleet with the aim of promoting the commercialisation of the company’s products worldwide.

It has developed a new mobility system based on M2M technology and cloud computing that uses mobile devices to connect vehicles to taxi dispatch centres and to potential taxi users.

Taxi dispatch centres are currently managed using analogue radio systems, with the distinct disadvantage of not enabling direct communication between the three

parties: dispatcher, the vehicle and the user. Instead of expensive investments in communications that can only be used in the taxi, AddFleet’s technology allows the driver to receive the same information but via his mobile phone, paying only a small fee on the receipt of each new fare.

Telefónica has developed into the global force it is through the timely application of new technology and it expects that the growing interest in cellular M2M will contribute further to the company’s growth.

For more information about Telefónica visit: www.telefonica.com

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