SoftBank Mobile Joins Global M2M Association
November 13, 2013

SoftBank Mobile Corp.

SoftBank Mobile Corp. (SoftBank Mobile) announces that today it joined the Global M2M Association (GMA), a global cooperation in the Machine-to-Machine sector. By partnering with the GMA, SoftBank Mobile aims to strengthen global services for the SoftBank M2M Solution Service Program (SMSP), a service recently launched by SoftBank Telecom Corp. and SoftBank Mobile.

The GMA is a cooperation formed by leading operators in Europe for the purpose of delivering enhanced and seamless M2M services. By joining the GMA, SoftBank Mobile will be able to deliver global M2M services and support in Europe and other GMA regions to its customers.

As the GMA offers seamless services across borders, common Service Level Objectives (SLOs) are in place for M2M roaming. In addition, through enhanced interoperability between hardware and networks on the GMA combined footprint, harmonized product specifications, as well as unified testing and certification procedures can be further advanced. Also, by building a thriving ecosystem with global partners at each M2M service layer, SoftBank Mobile will be able to provide enhanced M2M services to its customers.

With these initiatives, SoftBank Mobile will offer comprehensive support for its global M2M service customers, in areas including telematics, remote monitoring and fleet management.

About the Global M2M Association (GMA)

Established in February 2011, the Global M2M Association (GMA) is based on a service cooperation agreement between Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia and TeliaSonera. This partnership is now extended to Bell Mobility and SoftBank Mobile. Its main focus is to deliver best-in-class, enhanced and seamless M2M services globally and to maximize the business benefits of customers. The GMA aspires to help businesses and organizations to increase the availability of enhanced M2M solutions and innovations, and make them easier to deploy and manage all around the world.

Through this partnership, the participating parties are committed to offer customers enhanced quality of service, M2M roaming services and interoperability across a global footprint, by bringing together their technical and innovation capabilities. This unified and cohesive approach will enable to improve the incident and troubleshooting procedures and harmonize module standards through joint testing and certification.

For more information, please visit globalm2massociation.com.

About the SoftBank M2M Solution Service Program (SMSP)

The SMSP is a full suite of comprehensive services that includes support for M2M sensor network construction, communication line/equipment procurement, data gathering and utilization, maintenance management of equipment networks and call center processes. With the SMSP, customers can greatly reduce the time required for M2M service set up and initial costs, as well as decrease maintenance costs and increase efficiencies to accelerate implementation.