Ericsson is to provide Internet of Things connectivity and services to China Telecom’s enterprise customers.
Both companies signed a memorandum of understanding, which initially covers a five year period. Ericsson will provide IoT connectivity services to China Telecom’s business customers around the world.
It will also use its Device Connection Platform (DCP) to manage IoT connections. It is a cloud-based platform that will allow China Telecom to offer its enterprise customers device deployment and management.
Tongqing Gao, Vice-President, China Telecom, said: “DCP enables operators to cooperate globally to provide IoT device management, subscription management, network connectivity administration and flexible billing services.
“Therefore, the customers can seamlessly deploy and manage their IoT devices globally in order to ensure globally unified service procedure, consistent user experience, significantly improving efficiency and reducing the cost.”
Juntao Zhao, President of Ericsson China, added: “IoT is a rapidly changing area. By 2021, we forecast there will be 28 billion connected devices worldwide, of which 16 billion will be IoT connected devices.
“These IoT applications will help promote the development of 5G technology. This partnership with China Telecom aims to accelerate the large-scale deployment of IoT across the world.”
Last month, Ericsson held an application demonstration of NB-IoT in partnership with China Mobile and Intel.
Multiple sensors were deployed to track temperature, humidity, brightness and other data.
Delegates at last month’s Future of Wireless conference heard that it was essential that customers’ needs are listened to and understood if the Internet of Things is to be a success.