Telekom Austria targets more than 10m M2M connections by 2015

Telekom Austria aims to connect more than 10 million machine-to-machine (M2M) SIM cards to the group's network by 2015, according to chief executive Hannes Ametsreiter.

"[10 million] is the official target, the internal one is a little bit higher," he revealed during a reception hosted by the company in Barcelona on Tuesday.

Telekom Austria formed its M2M division in September 2011, ending the year and its first quarter of operation with 19 projects worth a total of €5 million, and around 500,000 connections. That total has since risen to around 1 million.

Bernard Liebscher, managing director of Telekom Austria M2M, and Phat Huynh, head of sales and marketing, said the unit's principle industry verticals include fleet and freight management; agriculture; healthcare; and energy, specifically smart metering.

"There are an estimated 1 million M2M connections in Telekom Austria Group countries and counting, but [in these markets] there are approximately 20 million vehicles, 50 million buildings, 30 million energy meters and 20 million dogs, cats and cattle running around," said Liebscher.

"There are hundreds of thousands of packages that need to be delivered on time every day," he added.
He said Telekom Austria's M2M arm will not be consumer-facing, focusing instead on business-to-business verticals, but acknowledged that industries like the consumer electronics sector also represents a huge M2M opportunity.

 

---