Telefónica, China Unicom partner in IoT

The agreement will contribute to consolidate their respective leading positions in Europe, Latin America and China, three of the most important IoT markets in the world.

Customers of Telefónica and China Unicom will be able to easily and seamlessly deploy IoT products and services in these three regions with a single global IoT SIM card. Using a unified IoT connectivity management platform they will be able to control connections globally and to localize IoT SIMs once they reach a geography (subscription swap), complying with GSMA standards.

Vicente Muñoz, Chief IoT Officer at Telefónica, commented that "we are leveraging IoT technologies to accompany our customers on their digital transformation journey, where IoT has a very important role to play. Telefónica IoT is named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Managed M2M Services worldwide, maintaining that position we have held since inception four years ago. Simplifying massive IoT deployments is key and therefore we are strengthening our ecosystem of partners. Our partnership with China Unicom will strengthen Telefónica's capability to meet our global customer needs".

Enterprise customers of both companies will be able to enjoy these new IoT capabilities later this year.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world by market capitalization and number of customers with a comprehensive offering and quality of connectivity that is delivered over world class fixed, mobile and broadband networks. As a growing company it prides itself on providing a differential experience based both on its corporate values and a public position that defends customer interests.

The company has operations in 17 countries and 344 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

Telefónica IoT is the global IoT business unit that develops and implements IoT solutions across all industry verticals. It offers end-to-end global solutions to its customers around the world relying on its best-in-class connectivity that extends beyond their footprint enabled by Roaming agreements and partnerships. Main areas of Telefónica IoT include Smart Mobility, Smart Cities, Smart Retail and Smart Energy.