IMO grows portfolio with 4G and 5G routers
Smartphone vendor IMO also looking to release a 5G handset in second half of next year
Paul Lipscombe
October 21, 2019
Three UK also announces its wholesale subscriber count grew 14 per cent year-on-year
Three has agreed a ‘multimillion-pound’ partnership with global communications provider Pareteum as part of its bid to grow its wholesale IoT offering.
The operator has seen an 84 per cent year-on-year increase in wholesale data usage for its MVNO and IoT partners, and an 85 per cent increase in IoT subscribers.
Pareteum is a New York-based cloud platform provider that operates in 50 countries, enabling IoT and MVNO connections.
Three also hopes the partnership will persuade MVNOs looking to grow their business to do so with the operator. In 2018, Three saw a 14 per cent year-on-year increase in wholesale subscribers, which now comprise 12 per cent of Three’s total subscriber count.
Three’s head of wholesale business development Darren King said: “We’re bringing Pareteum on board to address the enterprise, IoT and managed mobility markets. We’re excited about this relationship because of the sheer breadth of capabilities that Pareteum brings, with a strong focus and capability in enterprise and IoT.”
King added that Three’s 5G network, which has 100MHz of contiguous spectrum, will drive IoT partnerships, with the operator’s network overhaul set to increase capacity 28-fold in the next few years.
The partnership is Three’s second IoT-related move in the past two months, following a deal to provide its ‘big data’ IoT SIMs to partners of SIM provider Jola.