British O2 company gets first smart meter contract optimistic about growth prospects

O2 UK has signed a multi-million pound M2M contract with G4S Solutions, a UK smart metering service provider.

According to the contract signed by both parties, O2 UK will be responsible for simplifying the management and monitoring of G4S smart meters. This is O2's first step into the field of smart meters.

According to the agreement, O2 will provide 200,000 SIM cards to connect the G4S national smart meter with its data center, and the data center will also use the O2 SMS gateway to complete the data transmission between the smart meter and the data center.

G4S can remotely monitor the working information of smart meters to reduce maintenance costs. In addition, O2 also provides G4S with annual testing of connectivity to test disaster recovery.

O2 describes the smart meter as a very "emotional" field, but M2M applications will be more involved in the transportation, equipment and environmental monitoring industries in the future. These are also areas in which operators will achieve considerable growth in the future.

Ben Dowd, Head of O2 Business, said: “We believe our network can help utilities and other service providers to manage their equipment faster and more cost-effectively. We are very happy to cooperate with G4S and are confident of this cooperation. Relationships can bring new revenue growth opportunities to both parties."

O2 revealed that there are currently hundreds of M2M connections in the UK and it is expected that there will be faster growth in the future. Because the British government stated last year that by 2020 all British households must deploy smart meters.

Last month, Marc Overton, the wholesale and M2M vice president of Everything Everywhere, a newly established telecom operator in the United Kingdom, said that the company plans to become the UK's leading M2M service provider in the future.

Overton said that the company is currently conducting an operational test with an energy provider and announced cooperation information to the outside world in the next three to six months.

In May last year, another UK operator, Vodafone, and British Gas also reached M2M cooperation.