Telefónica and China Unicom have signed an agreement in the field of Internet of Things (IoT). Under the partnership the two companies will have access to each other networks and deploy their IoT services allowing their enterprise customers to use the best IoT technologies and accelerate the deployment of global IoT connectivity solutions in their businesses.

The agreement will contribute to consolidate their respective leading positions in Europe, Latin America and China, three of the most important IoT markets in the world.

Customers of Telefónica and China Unicom will be able to easily and seamlessly deploy IoT products and services in these three regions with a single global IoT SIM card. Using a unified IoT connectivity management platform they will be able to control connections globally and to localize IoT SIMs once they reach a geography (subscription swap), complying with GSMA standards.

Vicente Muñoz, Chief IoT Officer at Telefónica, commented that “we are leveraging IoT technologies to accompany our customers on their digital transformation journey, where IoT has a very important role to play. Telefónica IoT is named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Managed M2M Services worldwide, maintaining that position we have held since inception four years ago.  Simplifying massive IoT deployments is key and therefore we are strengthening our ecosystem of partners. Our partnership with China Unicom will strengthen Telefónica’s capability to meet our global customer needs”.

Enterprise customers of both companies will be able to enjoy these new IoT capabilities later this year.