Ericsson on Monday announced a partnership with KDDI, a leading Japanese operator, to deploy Ericsson Device Connection Platform (DCP). The partnership will provide enhanced connectivity services to KDDI's enterprise customers and support the deployment of IoT solutions on a global scale. DCP is a cloud-based IoT platform that will enable KDDI to offer enterprises IoT connectivity management, subscription management, network connectivity administration and flexible billing services. Enterprises will therefore be able to deploy, manage and scale IoT connected devices and applications globally, while improving operational efficiency and reducing costs. Keiichi Mori, Executive Officer, General Manager, IoT Business Development Division, Solution Business Sector, KDDI, said: "KDDI has for a long time been committed to building the communication environment to connect with world operators in order to support the global businesses of our customers. We believe that by adopting DCP, we will be able to leverage Ericsson's connection with world carriers and furthermore promote our unified service deployment globally to customers as they start worldwide IoT deployments." By offering seamless multinational connectivity, DCP enables customers to capitalize on the global growth of connected devices. The platform lowers entry costs as well as total cost of ownership, and makes deploying, managing and scaling IoT solutions financially viable for device manufacturers, enterprises and service providers. Chris Houghton, Head of Region North East Asia, Ericsson, said: "Ericsson is driving the evolution of the IoT by lowering thresholds for businesses to create new IoT solutions, as well as by breaking barriers between industries and connecting people, business and society. This partnership with KDDI is an important milestone in making the adoption of cellular services for IoT devices economically viable for enterprises." The number of connected devices is accelerating, driven by a growing range of applications and business models. Ericsson forecasts that by 2021 there will be 28 billion connected devices – of which 16 billion will be IoT connected devices, including M2M devices like meters, sensors and consumer electronics like wearables. New use cases are emerging for both short and long-range applications that will lead to even stronger growth, supporting Ericsson's vision of 50 billion connected devices.
