Machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions are rapidly infiltrating into virtually every business and home application. The two way communication the technology provides gives businesses and consumers the ability to exchange valuable information for improving services and solving problems as soon as an event takes place. While the M2M module is an important component, the telecommunications aspect is just as important. Without the telecom companies, the growth of M2M will have been much slower. Deutsche Telekom (DT), one of the leading M2M providers in the world, has been bringing this technology to consumers and businesses in the European market with the latest and most innovative solutions available in the sector.
In the domain of the Internet of Things (IoT) DT is one of the top providers, with more than 132 million customers and local presence in close to 50 countries around the world. The company has been pushing the implementation of the M2M ecosystem by being part of the Global M2M Association (GMA), a service cooperation agreement between Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, and TeliaSonera, and IT integration capabilities via T-Systems.
The convergence of two technologies: advanced telecom and very advanced cheap sensors with multiple capabilities is responsible for the growth of global M2M deployments. The question is what level of M2M deployment is right for an organization, and that is where DT comes in to provide managed services designed uniquely for each application.
These cheap advanced sensors can be deployed to monitor vending machines, toners in printers, and every imaginable device to ensure it is always functioning at optimum levels. If the vending machine runs out of chips or the toner needs to be replaced, the managed service will send an SMS to the designated mobile device so it can be refilled. This is just one example of many in which this technology improves the performance of everyone and everything across the value chain.
To address the entire market DT enables global M2M end-to-end solutions with partnerships and open platforms in the M2M Partner Program comprised of more than 600 companies from 56 countries. The company has also established M2M Marketplace, the first online shop dedicated to M2M and the Internet of Things in the world along with a Developer Community with resources for developers and startups for creating new solutions for connecting machines.
The pervasive nature of this technology will result in complete penetration in all areas of life and work. An estimated 50 billion devices are expected to be part of the IoT by 2020, and depending which forecast you read, it could be much more. Managing, monitoring, and optimizing the resources we have in the planet is crucial as the global population increases and the natural resources continue to dwindle.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
