Channel chomps on Bamboo’s M2M/IoT wholesale offering

Bamboo Technology Group has hailed the early success of its M2M [or Internet of Things] data connectivity offering.

Available from this January, with SIMs powered by the Telefónica group, Bamboo has reported average 31 percent month-on-month growth in new M2M connections.

The IT solutions firm has also registered 71 percent month-on-month growth in data volumes as its M2M channel ramps up.

“Our M2M channel has been a resounding success in the short time since its launch. Despite being a relatively new technology for the channel, the reaction from resellers at this early stage is very encouraging,” said Lorrin White, MD, Bamboo.

Bamboo offers its M2M service on a wholesale basis whereby partners can pay for the specific data they use (on a pence-per-kilobyte basis) – as opposed to being tied into specific data allowances.

Bamboo cites this flexibility as a key reason for its early success. Bamboo can also work with partners and customers to develop bespoke M2M packages and pricing structures that ensure the viability of new M2M product lines, before a customer takes them to market.

Bamboo says the barriers to wide-scale M2M adoption have generally been one of two things – customers struggling to conceive where M2M can deliver its own unique value in place of a regular cellular or fixed line connection. Or resellers not being convinced of the long-term profitability and viability of M2M even at a small scale.

“We believe we have been able to address both of these concerns with our M2M proposition,” said White.

“We have seen new use cases as varied as mobile CCTV, temporary office internet and even solar and wind farm telematics, in addition to the more traditional use cases in fleet and asset tracking, for instance.”

White said: “On the reseller side, by offering M2M SIMs on a wholesale pence-per-kilobyte basis we have significantly lowered the entrance fee for this market. This has given our partners the flexibility to build their own bundles so they can succeed with customers of all sizes, from heavy data users to those that use very little data at all.”

Bernie McPhillips, head of M2M authorised distributor channel, Telefónica UK, said: “Bamboo’s innovation in the M2M sector and strong track record of delivering excellence within the mobile arena is clearly resonating with the channel. We look forward to continuing to support their business in the future.”

Bamboo’s M2M service for resellers includes monitoring and control features via the Cisco Jasper IoT services platform. This enables partners to tailor their M2M services more precisely to include data alerts for customers or near real-time switching of customer data plans.

All SIMs deliver connectivity across multiple networks globally under one bill through 600 network roaming agreements.

@AntonySavvas