Etisalat Group and NetComm Wireless Limited said that they have agreed to expand their long-standing partnership to deliver machine-to-machine wireless communication technologies to Etisalat’s customers across the Middle East, Asia and Africa regions.
The new deal between the companies will extend NetComm Wireless’ M2M products to Etisalat’s networks in fifteen countries, providing access to faster 3G networks solutions designed to increase efficiencies and enable new services in areas such as smart metering, mHealth, digital signage, transportation and security.
As African nations, governments and businesses focus on developing the continent’s industries in areas such as health care, finance, consumer devices, Point of Sale (PoS), security, utilities and smart grid, and logistics and transport, having the necessary infrastructures in place that will ultimately support automatic data communication between devices such as electric meters (or smart meters), digital displays, vending machines, alarm systems and vehicles, are becoming extremely important in the planning process of how these industries will operate and deliver these services to consumers.
The new wireless M2M communication is expected to change how wireless broadband gateways connect to wireless networks on the continent.
The technology will enable commercial clients to gather and analyze, quickly, real time field data over the 3G networks bypassing the ubiquitous IT personnel or customer service, thus increasing business productivity, decrease operational costs and lower energy consumption. “It’s a shift from knowing “what happened” to knowing “what is happening”— all the time—and then automatically controlling systems with that knowledge,” the company said.
“This contract takes our partnership with Etisalat to a new level, and reflects our shared commitment to accelerating M2M deployments throughout the region. We are pleased to strengthen a collaboration that combines Etisalat’s extensive network coverage with NetComm Wireless’ innovative M2M technologies to deliver the business benefits of M2M to Etisalat’s customers,” said David Stewart, Managing Director and CEO, NetComm Wireless.
Etisalat, which started offering end-to-end M2M solutions to many of its operations, including a group of fleet management solutions, Emirates Energy Star for building energy management in the UAE and a health care solution in Saudi Arabia said this latest agreement with NetComm Wireless will help its network extend its capabilities in the area of M2M Gateways which is an important component in most M2M solution.
Etisalat believes that the new technology is essential for the regional development and has made a commitment to build the best in class M2M capabilities to offer to the market.
Last month, Etisalat launched the first M2M control center in Middle East, after it joined the M2M World Alliance earlier in the year. The M2M World Alliance is a group of eight international telecoms operators working together to simplify and promote M2M technology for global deployment.
The company said at an affordable, yet a high broadband connectivity services, consumers and commercial clients will be able to management, monitor remotely and control connected equipment virtually from any location in the world.
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, NetComm develop broadband products sold globally to major telecommunications carriers, core network providers and system integrators.
By THE AFRICA BAZAAR Staff Writer
