Verizon is turning to machines as a source of new subscriber growth, in a joint venture with wireless chipmaker Qualcomm.
The great thing about machines is they won’t churn, said Steve Pazol, head of the new company at a press-conference launch today. He cited the example of a John Deere tractor sitting in a field having no interest in switching to a cheaper family plan with another carrier.
Joking aside, M2M (machine-to-machine) wireless communications, including tractors talking to maintenance computers, is a promising market for service providers.
The best-known example to date is Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Qualcomm enabled the Whispernet and Whispersync services over the Sprint network that allow the latest editions of digitised newspapers to appear on the devices and Kindles to synchronise content with one another.
The joint venture, yet to be given a name, is aimed at making it easier for companies to implement such applications by providing an “end-to-end solution.”
It will offer wireless network services and application and device performance services to a wide range of industries, including those covering health care, manufacturing, utilities, distribution and consumer products.
The new company cited an example of smart grid technology - the ability to connect wirelessly circuit breakers and transformers and create self-balancing networks would be of great interest to utilities.
“This has been a niche space, it has been fragmented, we feel this partnership is going to bring us to the next level,” said Mr Pazol.
The M2M market is expected to reach more than 85m connections globally by 2012, according to analyst forecasts.
