Verizon Wireless, Qualcomm Team to Provide Advanced M2M Solutions

Qualcomm Incorporated and Verizon Wireless has reportedly forged an agreement to form a joint venture to provide machine-to-machine wireless communications and smart services offerings across a wide variety of market segments, including healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, distribution and consumer products. 

 

According to the company sources, the joint venture will be equally owned by Qualcomm and Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless to provide a single source for end-to-end M2M solutions. This new venture will be led by Steve Pazol, who previously served as vice president of global smart services at Qualcomm (News - Alert).

 

Qualcomm has provided a variety of M2M solutions that have added "always-on" mobile connectivity to assets, providing access to network intelligence and benefiting enterprise customers.

 

Anthony Lewis, vice president of open development at Verizon Wireless, said that the company’s vision for bringing the benefits of 'everything connected' to the marketplace started with the introduction of the open development business and the selection of LTE (News - Alert) technology for tier 4G network. He added that their new distinctive partnership with Qualcomm allows them to swiftly build on the strengths of each company's M2M strategy.

 

The new joint venture will utilize Qualcomm's advanced connectivity technologies and Verizon Wireless' simplified device certification process to deliver seamless, fully integrated M2M communication with global connectivity.

 

Both the companies aim to provide new capabilities such as cloud computing solutions to automate device provisioning, and to track, monitor and manage assets. Custom white label applications for OEM customers, productized applications for end-use markets, new diagnostic tools for monitoring network health and device performance, data aggregation services, back office integrations and other professional services required to deliver whole solutions also will be provided.

 

"M2M is a rapidly growing market projected by some analysts to reach more than 85 million connections globally by 2012," Pazol said in a statement.

 

Pazol that the next five years will be a significant period of innovation in M2M and both the companies expect to create a company focused in evolving niche aftermarket strategies to embedded product standardization strategies, driving down costs, increasing performance expectations and enabling impactful new business models.