Telecom Italia has become the fourth European operator to join the Global M2M Association, a collaborative programme founded by Deutsche Telekom and Orange (then France Telecom) in February 2011. TeliaSonera joined in July 2011.

The project aims to clear the way for M2M applications to run across the combined footprints of the four operators. At the start of this year the three existing members had synchronised their M2M helpdesk solutions and their module certification processes, enabling modules approved by one carrier to be deployed across the networks of all three.

The operators are also looking to enable seamless, cross-border customer experiences for M2M and to jointly drive cross-sector M2M partnerships.

“The M2M market is already moving quickly, with customers demanding harmonized service architectures without borders,” said Mario Polosa, director of the M2M Project Office at Telecom Italia. “We are firmly convinced that the GMA model is the best solution to consolidate and develop domestic and global opportunities together with our partners.”

Earlier this year Jürgen Hase, head of Deutsche Telekom’s M2M Competence Centre told Telecoms.com that compatibility rather than scale was the driving force behind the GMA’s expansion.

“It’s important to grow the alliance but you have to do it step by step; quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality,” he said. “You have to really define the ways in which you’re going to work together, the propositions you can offer to the market and gradually increase the footprint and the value chain. It’s also really important that you add partners for additional services, beyond connectivity.”