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IoT platform provider ramps up eSIM push with Gemalto partnership; bags deal with telematics specialist Telular.
IoT platform maker Jasper on Tuesday ramped up its embedded SIM (eSIM) capabilities by partnering with SIM card maker Gemalto, and talked up the benefits of being taken over by Cisco.
The networking giant agreed to acquire Jasper in early February for US$1.4 billion.
Jasper will form a new division within Cisco called the IoT software business, and will continue to be led by Jasper CEO Jahangir Mohammed. He will report to Rowan Trollope, SVP and general manager of Cisco’s IoT and collaboration technology group. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
"There is absolute synergy" between Jasper and Cisco, Robb Henshaw, Jasper’s senior communications director, told Total Telecom at Mobile World Congress.
"There’s no overlap, it just gives us rocket fuel for everything we’re doing," he said, adding that "the whole team is going over" to Cisco.
Jasper currently boasts more than 3,500 enterprise customers on its IoT platform, up from 1,900 at the same time last year.
"The growth is just mind-blowing at this point," Henshaw said.
At Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, Jasper announced a partnership with Gemalto that will enable secure, over-the-air (OTA) provisioning of eSIMs in devices anywhere in the world thanks to the SIM card maker’s LinqUS on-demand connectivity solution.
Henshaw said it makes the process of deploying cross-border connected devices simpler and cheaper.
Jasper has also signed a deal to provide IoT services to telematics and security product maker Telular.
Shawn Welsh, SVP of product line management and marketing at Telular, explained that his company’s haulage company customers want to keep track of their assets to maximise their use.
They want "more full trailers than empty ones – it’s about utilisation of those assets," he said.
Meanwhile, in the security market, connected alarm systems have historically used landlines, but more and more households, particularly in the U.S., are going mobile only, which is driving the demand for alarms with cellular connectivity.
"Cord-cutting represents huge growth for Telular in the IoT market," Welsh said.
