At a time when competition is rife in the telecom sector, especially with the entrance of Jio, telecom players are striving to stay ahead of the game by offering better coverage, tariffs and offers. While the game is mostly been between private players, Indian state-owned telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is also doing its bit in being digitally relevant.
It is now foraying into offering Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in India. It has tied up with IoT solutions provider Aeris Communications to jointly IoT market in India.
BSNL wants to use its reach to be able to offer IoT solutions across the country. Through the partnership, both companies will offer packaged IoT solutions and services to enterprises, small and medium businesses and public sector undertakings among other segments in India.
Anupam Shrivastava, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL says that the telecom major needs to play a role at a time when the mobile field has become even more competitive with new players coming into the market.
“In such a competitive environment, we need to play a role and so formulated a strategy and called it coopetition. When comes to competition we will compete with private players but will also have a collaborative approach. This is our strategy and so we signed an MoU with ZTE for 5G, with VNL for disaster management and now with Aeris for IoT. We will be going into the market and giving IoT solutions to enterprise customers,” he said at the launch which took place at the India Mobile Congress in Delhi.
The combination of BSNL and platform generated by Aeris will offer solutions for smart cities and for safety, cleanliness as India transforms into a digitally empowered country, Anupam added.
Other solutions BSNL will enable through IoT include supply chain efficiency, enhancing customer experience, tracking and monitoring assets.
“Given the reach BSNL has, if you want to reach rural markets, BSNL can be source for companies like us to provide IoT services. Our partnership will ensure faster permeation of IoT across India and help businesses and PSUs gain remarkable advantages while enabling innovation at all levels through ubiquitous connectivity and IoT solutions tailor-made for the challenges that Indian companies face,” said Dr. Rishi Bhatnagar, President Aeris Communications India.
Aeris has 10-18 IoT solutions on its platform such as vehicle telematics, energy, healthcare, smart meters and other smart city solutions, some of which are already deployed in India. And through this partnership, BSNL will be able to offer these services to end consumers as a white labeled service.