China Telecom is partnering with Ericsson to offer Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity services to the operator's enterprise customers globally.
The companies signed a MoU to jointly build global IoT connectivity and offer one-stop IoT connectivity services to enterprises through the Ericsson Device Connection Platform (DCP).
The agreement will initially cover for a five-year period, Ericsson said in a statement.
The DCP cloud-based IoT platform will enable China Telecom to offer enterprises IoT device deployment and help customers manage IoT products efficiently and flexibly, the Swedish vendor added.
"DCP enables operators to cooperate globally to provide IoT device management, subscription management, network connectivity administration and flexible billing services,” China Telecom vice president Gao Tongqing said.
“Therefore, the customers can seamlessly deploy and manage their IoT devices globally in order to ensure globally unified service procedure, consistent user experience, significantly improving efficiency and reducing the cost."
“By 2021, we forecast there will be 28 billion connected devices worldwide, of which 16 billion will be IoT connected devices,” Ericsson China president Zhao Juntao said.
“These IoT applications will help promote the development of 5G technology. This partnership with China Telecom aims to accelerate the large-scale deployment of IoT across the world.”
Zhao added the DCP is used by over 20 global operators to provide IoT connectivity services, serving more than 1500 enterprises across 100 countries.