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AIS enters into M2M alliance [Bangkok Post, Thailand :: ](Bangkok Post (Thailand) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 03--Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS), Thailand's biggest mobile operator, has joined forces with 10 Asia-Pacific mobile operators in a regional machine-to-machine alliance to serve rising M2M demand. Called Bridge M2M Alliance, the group comprises Airtel (India), AIS (Thailand), CSL (Hong Kong), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), MobiFone (Vietnam), Optus (Australia), SingTel (Singapore), SK Telecom (South Korea), Telkomsel (Indonesia) and Taiwan Mobile. The group will serve more than 500 million subscribers, making it the largest M2M alliance in Asia-Pacific. The partnership covers commercial and technological cooperation across various industries such as vehicle telemetry, security and energy management. It will also build an innovative ecosystem by partnering players in the M2M value chain with application developers, module manufacturers and service providers. A study by Infonetics Research said global revenue from M2M services would more than double to US$31 billion in 2017 from $15 billion in 2012. Infonetics expects M2M connections to surpass 4 billion by 2017, up from 1.4 billion in 2012. Pratthana Leelapanang, the senior vice-president for digital products and services at AIS, said M2M ? which defines sent-received data between internet-connected machines ? is gaining momentum in fleet management, remote metering and ATM that connect with mobile SIMs. M2M services let users increase efficiency and reduce operating cost. "M2M will become a growth engine for mobile operators to increase revenue streams from enterprises or corporate customers, generating higher average revenue per user than from consumers," Mr Pratthana said. AIS expects M2M services to rank among the company's top five enterprise services in the future. The current major revenue streams are corporate SMS and email collaboration services. In Thailand, the upcoming M2M service will be for security surveillance cameras. Shares of AIS (ADVANC) closed Friday on the SET at 209 baht, up four baht, in trade worth 731 million baht. ___ (c)2014 the Bangkok Post (Bangkok, Thailand) Visit the Bangkok Post (Bangkok, Thailand) at www.bangkokpost.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |