Ericsson and Gemalto to team up over subscription management

Ericsson and Gemalto are to offer an integrated M2M solution based on eUICC (embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card) subscription management technology by marrying the Ericsson Device Connection Platform with the Gemalto Subscription Management Platform. The companies say this will address operators' needs to meet enterprise requirements on the management of long M2M life cycles and sophisticated business process integration.

Things like smart metering or smart grid - where meters or power stations are increasingly connected over mobile networks and typically have life times measured in decades - or the automotive market have challenges for operators, say the companies. For instance, device makers today need to manage a number of variable parameters when manufacturing and issuing their devices.

Firstly, the country where the device will be sold or the network they will connect to is not known. Secondly, the UICC are at an increasingly pace soldered into devices at the manufacturing stage. Finally, the durability of the device could imply a change in the connectivity provider during its lifecycle.

The combination of these factors requires flexibility and openness in the subscription management and the Ericsson-Gemalto partnership has been designed to provide it through one integrated M2M connectivity solution the companies claim.