Global players form ‘M2Magnificent Seven’ (or ‘Seven SIMurai’?)

Seven mobile operators from Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Australia and Russia have formed an alliance to cooperate on global machine-to-machine (M2M) business initiatives. NTT DoCoMo, Rogers Communications, KPN, SingTel, Telefonica, Telstra and Vimpelcom entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop and support a single, global platform that multinational businesses will leverage to enable connected devices in multiple countries. The initiative, which is open to other operators, aims to create efficiencies for manufacturers and enhance the end-user experience by enabling delivery of a global product with a single SIM, and eliminating roaming costs in the countries of participating operators. Under the MoU, the centralised management of SIM status and performance of M2M devices across the globe will be managed from a single web interface using Jasper Wireless’ Control Centre, a press release said.