China Telecom, Tata Communications Partner to drive global connectivity for IoT devices

China Telecom Global and Tata Communications are working together to launch a global Internet of Things (IoT) service in the Chinese market.

The partnership will allow companies to deploy and manage IoT devices easily and cost-effectively within China and internationally across multiple industries, including consumer and industrial electronics manufacturing, automotive, transport and logistics.

China Telecom Global and Tata Communications will cooperate to support global IoT opportunities. The Tata Communications MOVE™ service leverages the company’s relationships with more than 600 mobile network operators worldwide, to ensure that a new IoT-enabled wearable device or automotive system, for example, can be instantly connected, anywhere in the world.

With this platform and capabilities, China Telecom Global will be able to enhance the global reach of its IoT offering, and address the needs of both Chinese and overseas based corporations.

Through this partnership, China Telecom Global also provides Tata Communications with connectivity for Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. Tata Communications can also leverage China Telecom’s vast 4G network resources to support its customers with competitive and high-quality IoT connectivity in the Greater China market.

For specific vertical industries such as automotive, China Telecom Global will provide Tata Communications with IoT connectivity solutions that are compliant with Chinese market requirements.

According to the China Economic Information Service, China’s IoT industry achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 25% between 2009 and 2017, and by the end of 2018, the organisation’s Annual IoT Industry Development Report of China valued this market at an estimated CNY 1.5 trillion (USD 222.6 billion). Furthermore, GSMA Intelligence expects there to be 13.8 billion industrial IoT connections globally by 2025, with almost a third, or 4.1 billion, of these connections to stem from Greater China.

“We want to grab our share of the rapidly growing Chinese IoT market,” said Deng Xiaofeng, CEO of China Telecom Global. “China Telecom Global is working closely with Tata Communications to pave the way for innovative and advanced IoT solutions across industries. We’re able to offer our customers the borderless, reliable and affordable network connectivity they need for their different IoT devices. As the volume of connected ‘things’ continues to grow, we are able to give our customers complete visibility and control to make the management of hundreds of thousands of IoT devices easier on a global scale. We also look forward to providing Tata Communications’ customers with reliable IoT connectivity in the Greater China region.”

“The very nature of IoT in areas like automotive infotainment and air travel means that these ‘things’ require borderless, secure and scalable connectivity to allow businesses to capture, move and manage the valuable information they generate on a global scale,” said Anthony Bartolo, Chief Product Officer, Tata Communications. “Through our Tata Communications MOVE™ platform and this partnership with China Telecom Global, we look forward to helping to eliminate the complexities that businesses may face when deploying new IoT devices, and accelerate the time-to-market for new innovative IoT-enabled services in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.”

This partnership means that the multinational customers of China Telecom Global and Tata Communications will be able to deploy IoT services across each other’s networks and capitalise on the growth of the global IoT market.