Telekom Austria has become the latest carrier to establish a division dedicated to developing solutions for the machine to machine (M2M) market. Announced in mid-September, Telekom Austria Group M2M was actually created in August in recognition of what TA CEO Hannes Ametsreiter described as “a very promising development of the M2M business”.

To begin with the new unit will focus on applications for eight sectors—automotive, consumer electronics, healthcare, logistics and transportation, retail and payments, security and surveillance, industrial and smart business, and energy and utilities.

Bernd Liebscher, managing director of the new M2M business said it was an extension of the firm’s previous work in the enterprise segment, adding that M2M offered the carrier a new outlet for its data and billing expertise.

Liebscher said that regulatory momentum behind smart metering and emergency call systems within the EU is helping to create opportunities in the connected devices market. “M2M allows for an unprecedented range of applications for both retail and business customers, making it one of the most compelling topics of the entire ICT industry,” he said. “Telekom Austria Group M2M will actively shape these future developments.”

Sales and marketing activities for the new operation will be based in TA’s Central and Eastern European businesses, while the new unit will be “responsible for steering and coordinating individual initiatives in the local companies,” the firm said.

Other carriers that have established dedicated M2M plays include Telenor, KPN, AT&T, Orange, Verizon, Telstra, Sprint, Telefónica and Vodafone.