Int’l Roundup: Vodafone, Hibernia, Softbank, Orange

Time for a quick rundown of news on the international front from this week:

In the category of actual M2M contracts, the Finnish multinational company KONE has tapped Vodafone for a new diagnostics service for proactive maintenance tasks. Maintenance for what, you ask? They want to use M2M to outfit the elevators and escalators they operate and maintain around the world, sending back operational data wirelessly so as to let KONE streamline the process as a whole.

Hibernia Networks is really looking to shake things up in the content vertical. They followed up their launch of a global CDN earlier this week with an expansion of its media contribution services deep into Sweden. Their new Swedish media network reaches into 40 cities. Readers will recall that Hibernia acquired Teliasonera’s MediaConnect business in 2012. While the PR didn’t say so, the expansion into Sweden likely reflects a further deepening of that relationship into the Swedish giant’s home market.

The latest telecom M&A rumor over in Europe has Japan’s Softbank taking a swing at Vodafone. You never know, but I seriously doubt it. I can understand their interest in buying T-Mobile to further consolidate their US position. But to take on the market challenges faced by Vodafone simultaneously to those faced by Sprint… Masayoshi Son is one of the craftiest billionaires around, but he’s not nuts.

Orange Business picked up another of the globe-hopping network outsourcings that are its bread and butter. The Australian- and South African-based engineering outfit Aurecon has tapped them to redesign, consolidate, and manage their infrastructure.  The footprint in question spans 80 sites and 7,500 users across the Asia-Pacific, African, and Middle Eastern theaters.

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Categories: IoT, M2M · Mergers and Acquisitions · Video · Wireless