More machines now than man

Machine to machine cellular communications is a massively underserved market according to M2M operator Jasper Wireless. Operators are missing a lucrative trick in highly penetrated regions, according to the firm which officially launched in Europe on Monday.

Recent stats from Berg Insight reveals that Europe has a potential market of 600 million wireless M2M connections, while ABI Research expects the M2M market to quadruple by 2012. But M2M communications are confronted with high costs and the lack of tailored customer services, which means that today less than 2 per cent of connectable machines are actually connected.

“We launched a commercial service in 2006, however, it was critical that our customers know that their devices are mission critical,” Macario Namie, senior product marketing manager at Jasper Wireless, told telecoms.com. “We now have 99.99 per cent reliability in our data centres and have reached a critical mass of 35 countries served.”

The firm strikes roaming agreements with the leading national carrier in a given market (where possible), then sells direct to firms that specialise is services such as home security, fleet management or navigation systems.

Jasper differentiates itself from other, mainly MVNO-based, M2M specialists since it is a licensed carrier and fully paid up member of the GSM Association. The licence enables Jasper to produce its own SIM cards with unique IMSEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) numbers which, the firm says, enable greater control over the devices than comparable MVNO offerings.