MOUNTAIN VIEW, United States — Mobily, one of the leading communications companies in Saudi Arabia announced on Friday the availability of services to wirelessly connect machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer electronics devices in the Kingdom. The availability of such services was made possible in a joint undertaking with Jasper Wireless, said to be the leading connected devices platform powering the mobile Internet of Things. The number of wireless M2M connections in the Middle East is forecast to rise to 119.7 million by the end of 2016, according to research by industry analyst firm Visiongain. Mobily is launching its commercial services at a time of significant growth in the IoT market in the region, with businesses adopting M2M services across multiple sectors including the construction industry — with heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) and security systems — utilities, m-health and connected vehicles. Jasper Wireless is providing Mobily with the flexibility and ease of implementation to deliver the necessary applications and services to profitably connect and manage a range of embedded wireless devices across Mobily's key vertical markets. “With a 40 percent market share, Mobily has an excellent presence in the MENA region — a region itself that has enviable growth rates and potential, particularly for M2M communications,” said Cindy Patterson, Chief Revenue Officer, Jasper. “Working across multiple markets, the cloud-based delivery model is critical to Mobily's ability to quickly launch commercial services and capitalize on the rapid growth potential in the market. Mobily is well placed now with the necessary applications and services to accelerate its offerings to businesses looking to exploit the growth in IoT services globally.” “Working across such a range of vertical markets, from automotive and healthcare to construction and utilities, requires a level of flexibility and scalability that only a cloud-based platform can deliver,” said Dr. Marwan Al Ahmadi, Chief Business Officer at Mobily. “The Jasper IoT platform not only delivers all this, but also the added benefit of a network-effect, giving us access to enterprise customers already live and delivering M2M services and our customers the ability to reach global markets with one platform. We are pleased to work with the company that is the number one choice for businesses around the world as they look to take advantage of new IoT opportunities.” The deployment and launch of M2M services in Saudi Arabia by Mobily is aligned with the Etisalat Group M2M strategy of creating synergies between the Etisalat Group subsidiaries. To achieve market success in a phenomenally fast-growing connected devices ecosystem, enterprises depend on their operator to enable them to find the right business models to service different verticals and consumers globally. Jasper has developed the applications and services that support highly flexible business models as well as the automation of operational processes, including custom device provisioning, instant activation, real-time diagnostic tools and detailed billing and usage reports, ensuring a superior out-of-box end-user experience. Mobily joins a growing list of other Jasper Wireless operator partners including AT&T, América Móvil, NTT DOCOMO, Telefónica, VimpelCom, KPN, SingTel, Telenor, Etisalat, Telstra, Rogers and more. With this Mobily also becomes part of the M2M World Alliance providing the benefit of leveraging the reach of the largest M2M partnership. — SG
