Sprint business customers will now be able to more easily take their operations global, reduce complexity by working with a single point of contact to provide a unified, end-to-end offering for all domestic and international connectivity needs
Sprint (NYSE:S) is partnering with Orange Business Services to provide Sprint with global machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity outside the U.S., the companies announced today. Through this agreement, Sprint will expand its M2M reach to include Sprint-branded global M2M connectivity to 180 countries.
ABI Research forecasts that there will be more than 106 million M2M connections globally, excluding the U.S., in 2012, growing to over 272 million M2M connections in 2016. Given this expected growth, the agreement enables Sprint to expand the reach of its business customers’ machines and basic operations beyond the United States in segments such as automotive and telematics, smart grid and metering, healthcare, retail point-of-sale and security.
“We look forward to working with Orange Business Services as a vital partner as we equip U.S. business customers with a strong global M2M capability and help them reduce complexity by working with a single support team,” said Yijing Brentano, vice president of international wholesale – Sprint.
“Sprint recognizes that its customers compete in the global economy and they expect their processing, monitoring, diagnostic and distribution applications to work seamlessly wherever their business takes them. Thanks to Orange’s extensive and proven global network, we will provide our customers with seamless, global M2M solutions with the highest standard in quality of service.”
Orange Business Services, the enterprise arm of France Telecom-Orange (NYSE: FTE), is a leading global integrator of communications solutions for multinational corporations. Orange Business Services is delivering its global M2M connectivity service to Sprint through its International M2M Center (IMC) based in Brussels. With 200+ experts dedicated to M2M, Orange Business Services brings together expertise in consulting, design, innovation, integration, project management and service management along with leading-edge knowledge of the M2M ecosystem. Its seamless global network provides IP access in 220 countries and territories and supports more than 2.5 million active M2M connections.
“We are thrilled to be Sprint’s partner for end-to-end M2M connectivity outside the U.S.,” said Rodolphe Frugès, vice president, Internet of Things and M2M – France Telecom-Orange.
“The choice of Orange by Sprint, a major telecommunications carrier, is a great recognition of our unmatched M2M quality of service and global footprint. We look forward to extending this to
Sprint’s enterprise customers as they deploy connected applications that require global and carrier-grade M2M solutions.”
“Sprint is one of our largest customers in the U.S., and we are delighted that they have chosen to partner with us to support such a critical component of their core business,” said Diana Einterz, senior vice president, Americas – Orange Business Services.
By adding Orange’s global capabilities to Sprint’s M2M solutions, customers will benefit from several important advantages, including:
- the ability to extend M2M solutions beyond the United States;
- the ability to have a single, dedicated entity managing global M2M connectivity requirements – with local implementation and local contract negotiation support;
- the ability to readily achieve economy of scale, cost control and faster project deployment when extending M2M capabilities globally, with secure and reliable configurations; and
- an integrated M2M supply chain process, ensuring a one-stop shop and a single provisioning and support process for each country in which a company operates.
In addition to its international footprint, Orange will provide Sprint with integral components to offer a seamless global M2M service, including:
- M2M-specific Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) SIM cards for deployment with a variety of M2M devices;
- a feature-rich Web portal Sprint customers can use to order and manage SIM cards; and
- the ability to provide end-to-end service from the SIM cards up to a customer’s application platform.
Sprint provides domestic and global M2M services through its Emerging Solutions Group, which is part of the company’s Wholesale and Emerging Solutions business unit.
