Deutsche Telekom broadens global IoT business
Deutsche Telekom‘s IoT subsidiary has joined Bridge Alliance to strengthen its IoT (Internet of Things) business between Europe and the APAC region, enhancing its global IoT connectivity offerings. The move comes as the company is focusing on growing internationalisation in the IoT business area.
The Deutsche Telekom IoT GmbH subsidiary joins Bridge Alliance, a business alliance of 35 mobile communications companies in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and now Europe. Bridge Alliance provides connectivity and integrated value-added services, including IoT/M2M, to its members. The cooperation opens the ‘greatest possible flexibility’ for both sides to meet individual customer requirements in an international environment.
Deutsche Telekom is the first European telecommunications company in this alliance. Its IoT subsidiary is part of the business customer activities within T Business.
By joining, Deutsche Telekom now offers global companies easy access to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region (APAC). For Telekom’s IoT division, this is another milestone on its way to becoming a global provider of connectivity.
“We are very pleased to now be a strong partner for the Bridge Alliance. We are pooling the know-how and technical expertise of all members. Together, we always offer our customers the best connectivity solution for their global challenge,” emphasises Dennis Nikles, managing director of Deutsche Telekom IoT. “For companies from the Asian region, it is now even easier to do IoT business in Europe. This is particularly interesting for the growing market of Asian electric vehicles in Europe. But European customers also benefit. A strong global offering – all under one contract, one management and one globally standardised service.”
Local partners in the countries facilitate local customer support.
One solution for global IoT connectivity
The advantage for companies: They can offer and operate their IoT solutions and networked products internationally without having to work out separate solutions with local providers. The previous administration effort with numerous operator platforms is also eliminated: the T IoT Hub is the central point of contact. Deutsche Telekom offers global connectivity with one contract, one service team and an access point for easy management of all IoT connections. It also offers a simplified procurement process with pre-optimized contracts and billing, uniform global service level agreements and a single point of contact for customer support.
Local regulations are observed
Anyone who operates globally must be familiar with the markets in many countries and their local regulations – this also applies to mobile communications. For example, a growing number of national authorities prohibit permanent roaming. Others prohibit certain data from leaving the country. To enable networking for IoT projects in these countries too, cooperation between providers is needed to be able to offer local connectivity under global contracts. This is what Bridge Alliance and its member telecommunications companies provide.
Global network of networks: via roaming, satellite and mobile IoT
The partnership with Bridge Alliance continues the strategy of a ‘network of networks.’ Telekom recently announced its tariffs for Satellite IoT. In combination with terrestrial mobile communications via NB-IoT, LTE-M, 4G and 5G, highly reliable hybrid global connectivity is now available. Roaming agreements are also in place with over 600 international partners. A transatlantic cooperation already exists with T-Mobile in the USA.