Beijing, China & Santa Clara, USA. March 2, 2015 – Jasper, a global Internet of Things (IoT) platform provider, and China Unicom, the world’s third largest mobile network operator, today announced that they are partnering to deliver IoT services for enterprise customers in China.
Businesses leverage IoT to enable new service experiences and increase value for their customers, while generating new sources of revenue. By partnering with Jasper, China Unicom will offer its customers a global platform through which companies can successfully launch, manage and monetise IoT service businesses throughout China.
Joining forces to address China’s IoT market
China Unicom has made great strides in preparing the market for the benefits of IoT in China, where the scope and scale of the opportunity for enterprises to capitalize on IoT technology is vast. According to recent research by the GSMA[1], China is now the world’s largest machine-to-machine (M2M) market with 50 million devices connected.
To address this opportunity, China Unicom selected Jasper’s Control Center platform to provide its customers with essential IoT capabilities like mobile service management, real-time diagnostics, robust rating and intelligent business process automation. In combination with China Unicom’s high-performance mobile network, the Jasper platform enables rapid time-to-market for businesses, and provides a flexible, turnkey solution that can be configured to meet the specialized needs of businesses across any industry. Cloud-based delivery brings the advantages of agility, efficiency, global consistency and anywhere-access so businesses can scale their connected services at will.
Moving connected cars forward
China boasts the world’s largest car market, representing a significant opportunity for the proliferation of connected cars. Automotive technology research firm SBD[2] notes that China is set to become the global leader for embedded telematics before the end of the decade. This partnership brings together China Unicom’s existing relationships with 26 major car manufacturers and Jasper’s experience with 11 car manufacturers, creating an opportunity to address the burgeoning Connected Car market in China.
Seamless entry into the Chinese market for the rest of the world
China Unicom offers a unique proposition to global enterprises as it stands alone in China in using the same 3G and 4G technologies (WCDMA and FDD-LTE) as a majority of mobile operators worldwide. When combined with Jasper’s Control Center platform, this provides a significant competitive advantage for China Unicom by enabling seamless entry into the Chinese market for multinational enterprises.
Jasper’s global expertise, which includes a deeply integrated network of operator partners worldwide serving over 1,600 enterprises across six continents, complements China Unicom’s local expertise and market strength. Together, China Unicom and Jasper are uniquely positioned to enable accelerated adoption across the broad scope of IoT-ready industries in China and enable China’s IoT companies to easily scale their global operations, while also enabling a direct path for outside enterprises to break into the Chinese market.
“With Jasper, we’re primed to break new ground in the Internet of Things. We’re already serving more than 10 million IoT connections, working with a largest number of automotive manufacturers and supporting various applications across smart cities and buildings, smart utilities, smart home appliances, video surveillance and health monitoring. We’re looking to expand to billions of connections in the next couple of years, and we needed a premier IoT platform partner to enable that rapid growth,” said Mr. Tian Wenke, general manager, Business Customer Department at China Unicom. “Enterprises choose our high-quality, high speed WCDMA network for guaranteed service reliability and performance, and value our visionary approach in this space. We believe that partnering with Jasper, the leading provider of IoT platforms, is absolutely paramount to offering enterprises and their customers a superior experience. Jasper is in a league of its own when it comes to providing the technology and business support that our customers need to rapidly scale and grow their IoT services business.”
“The Internet of Things market in China is rapidly developing,” said Jahangir Mohammed, founder and CEO at Jasper. “Regardless of the industry, this partnership provides both domestic and international enterprises the most direct path to rolling out IoT services in China. China Unicom is a leader in IoT with ambition to push the boundaries of innovation, and together we provide a very powerful proposition to any business looking to build and scale connected services, both into and outside of China.”
“China is a large IT market full of potential and competiveness,” said Amy Teng, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Gartner forecasts that the Internet of Things (IoT) will include 26 billion units installed by 2020.”
China Unicom is the latest to join Jasper’s global network of operator partners, which includes AT&T, NTT DOCOMO, Telefónica, América Móvil, VimpelCom, KPN, SingTel, Telenor, Etisalat, Telstra, Telecom Italia, Rogers and more.
[1] GSMA: Connected Living – How China is set for global M2M leadership, GSMA, June 2014, Page 2.
[2] 2025 Every Car Connected: Forecasting the Growth and Opportunity, by SBD for the GSMA, February 2012, Page 11.
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