France Telecom-Orange and German rival Deutsche Telekom have agreed to explore potential areas of cooperation in a defined set of technology fields.
The companies have agreed upon the following set of potential cooperation fields: radio access network sharing in Europe, improving WiFi user experience while roaming, equipment standardisation, machine-to-machine standards and quality of service for cross-border services.
The two groups have also agreed on potential cooperation in a set of new growth business development domains such as technical cooperation on home media servers, development of cross border e-Health services, connected cars technology and in-car infotainment services, content and technical enablers for TV and video services.
While joint work in many of these areas remains only a vague project, the companies said they are already working together for the improvement of international machine-to-machine communications and Wi-Fi roaming usability.
The specific cooperation agreement for M2M is aimed at increasing the quality of service and standards for cross-border machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
The agreement, which initially covers France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, aims to include all mobile network operators affiliated to the two groups, and to expand globally through partnerships with other mobile network operators.
