Telecoms25.03.2010

Accelerate M2M with 3G/HSPA

Leading US wireless machine-to-machine vendor Digi International expands portfolio with Ericsson’s 3G/HSPA

The number of cellular M2M (machine-to-machine) connections will triple over the next five years, reaching more than 200 million in 2014, according to ABI Research. To address this growing market, one of the leading US wireless M2M enterprise solution providers, Digi International, has chosen Ericsson’s (NASDAQ:ERIC) HSPA mobile broadband module in selected Digi Transport and Digi Connect cellular gateways for rapid global adoption of 3G connectivity in M2M applications.

Many industries are being transformed by the introduction of connectivity in their processes. In the energy sector, smart metering increases business efficiencies and decreases operational expenses for energy companies. Transportation tracking solutions improve route optimisation and safety for vehicles on the road. The healthcare industry is also looking into improvement of patient care through instant device communications, remote monitoring and disease management.

Larry Kraft, senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Digi International says: “We are driving M2M adoption in numerous industries, such as energy, fleet management, retail and security. With Ericsson’s module in our gateways, our customers can easily develop new high-speed wireless M2M applications, such as video surveillance and other high-bandwidth applications where higher upload speeds are required. We believe this will improve customer loyalty and satisfaction.”

“Ericsson envisions 50 billion connected devices by 2020,” says Mats Norin, Head of Mobile Broadband Modules at Ericsson. “Everything that benefits from a network connection will have one. There is a strong trend towards connectivity in a wide range of industry applications and our embedded modules enable HSPA in any device. The collaboration with Digi opens up new opportunities for us in a rapidly growing market.”

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