It seems mobile network operators are constantly being urged to play a bigger M2M role than that of connectivity provider, but Telenor Connexion claims its focus on connectivity is helping it stay ahead of the competition.

The operator this week announced a new deal to provide connectivity services in Europe and Asia for Geotab, a North American fleet telematics specialist now expanding its service internationally.

Having flourished as a provider of network connectivity and devices in the asset-tracking market, satellite operator Orbcomm is ramping up activities at its newer solutions business, with international expansion a firm priority.

The company was recently named the biggest vendor of intermodal container tracking solutions by analyst firm Berg Insight, but Orbcomm (Rochelle Park, NJ, USA) is not resting on its laurels.

Deutsche Telekom says it will announce more partners for its Global M2M Association (GMA) with France Telecom and TeliaSonera in the next two or three months.

Speaking to M2M Zone on the sidelines of last week’s M2M World Congress in London, Jurgen Hase, the head of Deutsche Telekom’s M2M Competence Center, said the new partners would help to expand the GMA’s footprint.

“We will announce some new partners from Europe in the next two or three months,” he said.

Telefonica Digital has announced a partnership with fleet-monitoring specialist Sascar aimed at developing fleet-management services for light vehicles in Brazil.

The companies claim their services will offer cost savings and greater efficiency to an addressable market of about 5 million light vehicles in the South American country.

The partnership has already won the approval of the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica, Brazil’s competition authority.

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom has signed what it calls a “nearly double-digit million euro contract” with cargo monitoring service provider arviem for the provision of M2M services.

The operator describes the deal as an “important building block” for expanding its presence in the M2M market.

The two companies are to work together on providing real-time monitoring services for freight consignments, with Deutsche Telekom (Bonn, Germany) contributing hardware and SIM cards while arviem (Baar, Switzerland) provides the software needed to evaluate data.

Middle East operator du has signaled its strong interest in M2M through a new partnership with hardware vendor Gemalto.

The operator says it will use Gemalto’s machine identification modules (MIMs) in all of its major M2M initiatives across a variety of end markets, including the oil and gas, retail, healthcare, power management and transportation sectors.

App-connected vehicles are set to account for 20% of all consumer cars in Western Europe and North America by 2017, according to a new connected-cars study from Juniper Research.

According to the analyst firm, advancements in entertainment head-units and higher smartphone penetration will be largely responsible for the increase in app-connected vehicles over the forecast period.