Ericsson, Bridge Alliance in IoT partnership

Ericsson has announced a partnership with Bridge Alliance under which it will deploy its Device Connection Platform (DCP), designed for the management of IoT, for the industry group’s 36 operators across Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

According to Ericsson, the DCP significantly reduces deployment barriers for enterprises, as well as lowering costs and enabling IoT service roll-outs in multiple countries but under domestic commercial conditions.

“The partnership with the Bridge Alliance members to deploy the Ericsson DCP is a critical milestone to make the adoption of cellular services in IoT devices economically viable for device OEMs and enterprises,” Anders Lindblad, Senior Vice President, Business Unit Cloud & IP at Ericsson said.

The Swedish kit vendor claimed the solution will offer a unified experience wherever it is implemented, including a global SIM card and harmonised service levels and business processes. “The combination of Ericsson’s technology leadership in IoT connectivity and Bridge Alliance’s geographical coverage is an unmatched vehicle for any device original equipment manufacturer or enterprise looking to propel its business,” Alessandro Adriani, CEO of Bridge Alliance said.

“Offering this unified experience requires more than just harmonising interfaces across mobile operators. We have done more with Ericsson, including standardising our footprint on a common core network. This will truly guarantee harmonised sets of features and service levels within the footprint to our customers.”

Just like rival Nokia last week, Ericsson seemed keen to emphasise its IoT strategy ahead of the Mobile World Congress 2015 next week. The vendor also likely has its eye on the growth potential of the the Asia-Pacific market, where according to Matt Hatton from Machina Research mobile operator sales are set to increase considerably in the next five years. “Mobile operator revenues in Asia-Pacific should soar from $3 billion in 2015 to $9.2 billion in 2020 and account for nearly 40% of global revenue,” he said.