Telefonica on Wednesday officially launched its machine-to-machine (M2M) partnership scheme to Latin America, outlining its rollout plan for 2015.
The M2M Global Partner Programme launched in the U.S. a little over a year ago, setting a target of 250 members by the end of 2014. It launched in Europe last February and in July Telefonica surpassed the 250-member milestone. It now boasts more than 500 members.
"The M2M Global Partner Programme has proven to be a successful model to manage the M2M connectivity business in Europe and the United States. Therefore, expanding it to LatAm was the natural next step," said Alfonso de Andrés, who heads up the scheme as director of Telefónica Digital Channels, in a statement.
The programme sees Telefonica coll aborate with different players in the M2M value chain, including device makers, platform and application providers, and distributors, boosting business for everyone involved.
The M2M Global Partner Programme has already arrived in Peru and Mexico, and is due to launch in four more countries in the first half of 2015: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Other countries will follow during the second half of the year.
Telefonica is a major player in Latin America’s telco market, and M2M partners looking for business there will benefit not only from Telefonica’s network coverage, but the combined footprint of its 400 roaming partners in the region as well.
"We look forward to having the programme fully implemented in LatAm during 2015 as we believe it will have a great impact in developing the M2M market in the region," said Andrés.
