Paris, March 28, 2011
Veolia Water and Orange are joining forces in the smart metering sector and are launching m2o city, an operator specialized in remote environmental data and water meter reading services. Building on the expertise of Veolia Water – which already operates over 200,000 water meters – and Orange’s expertise as a telco, the m2o city joint-venture offers as of today a complete turnkey service based on an ultralow consumption radio network* to local authorities, through their municipal agencies or agents for water services. In addition to information from water meters, this network will be able to collect data from environmental sensors (to combat noise or pollution for instance) in line with the expectations of any authorities.
The worldwide water services leader, Veolia Water joins forces with Orange, Europe’s leading telco group, to benefit from its expertise for designing and operating networks, especially Machine-to-Machine (M2M). Orange has established itself as a natural partner for moving on to an industrial scale with M2M projects. Veolia Water will use the water metering service provided by m2o city to improve the quality of the service for consumers, optimize the water service’s performance, and in this way safeguard resources more effectively.
Through their joint-venture, Orange and Veolia Water aim to enable as many people as possible to benefit from their remote meter metering service, helping pave the way for the emergence of a global standard for remote data collection networks. These network technologies are now available for wide-scale deployment and will make it possible to create a multi-application network able to host the services devised by environmental players.
For Jean-Michel Herrewyn, Veolia Water’s Chief Executive Officer: “Combining the expertise from both of our groups, this company is developing a new business, as a smart metering service operator benefiting sustainable towns and cities”.
Moreover, Vivek Badrinath, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Business Services, confirms that: “We are delighted to be working hand in hand with Veolia on this ambitious partnership. It is perfectly in line with our strategy: joining forces with a major business partner by providing our connectivity and information system management expertise in order to enable the emergence of new M2M services to be used as widely as possible”.
Taisei Miura, CEO of m2o city, presents this new smart metering operator in a video interview here.
Veolia Water, the water division of Veolia Environnement, is the world leader in water and wastewater services. Specialized in outsourcing services for municipal authorities, as well as industrial and service companies, it is also one of the world’s major designers of technological solutions and constructor of facilities needed in water and wastewater services. With 96,260 employees in 67 countries, Veolia Water provides water service to 100 million people and wastewater service to 71 million. Its 2010 revenue amounted to €12.1 billion. www.veoliawater.com
Orange Business Services, the France Telecom Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, is a leading global integrator of communications solutions for multinational corporations. With the world’s largest, seamless network for voice and data, Orange Business Services reaches 220 countries and territories with local support in an additional 166. Offering a comprehensive package of communication services covering cloud computing, enterprise mobility, M2M, security, unified communications, videoconferencing, and broadband, Orange Business Services delivers a best-in-class customer experience across a global landscape. Thousands of enterprise customers and 1.4 million users rely on an Orange Business Services international platform for communicating and conducting business. Orange Business Services is a four-time winner of Best Global Operator at the World Communication Awards. Learn more at www.orange-business.com
* industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) network using the 868 MHz waveband.
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