And for customers who don't like the self-service approach to M2M, carriers can use those platforms to deliver professional services as another way to generate incremental revenue, she added.
"It's like the OSS/BSS of machine-to-machine," Weldon said.
AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have all taken steps toward addressing the service delivery platform issue. At CTIA last week, Verizon Wireless announced its Machine to Machine Management Center -- an M2M service delivery platform built by nPhase, Verizon and Qualcomm's joint venture.
The platform will enable enterprise wireless M2M customers to manage network connections, manage devices and M2M applications directly through Verizon's Web portals or can be integrated on the back-end into customers' business applications, according to Verizon. The platform is expected to go live later this month.
Earlier this year, AT&T announced it would be the exclusive US partner with Jasper Wireless, a wireless M2M service platform vendor, to deliver its Control Center management console to enterprise M2M customers.
Sprint also announced at CTIA its advanced service delivery platform for wireless M2M services, Sprint Command Center, which is slated to launch in 2011. Similarly, the platform, built by Aeris Communications, offers a dashboard for customers to launch, manage, test and monitor M2M devices on Sprint's network.
"Some of the analyst reports [say] that there [are] going to be 20 billion connected devices over the next few years. That [presents] very interesting and challenging opportunities for companies," Nelson said. "We realize that they need some effective tools to be able to develop and implement solutions, and get them out there very quickly."
Jessica Scarpati is a news writer of SearchTelecom.com
This article originally appeared on SearchTelecom.com