GEOTAB and Vodacom Global M2M SIM Agreement
GEOTAB in its constant endeavor to provide a high quality service signed an agreement with Vodacom in South Africa to utilize the global M2M Platform of Vodafone within the Fleet Monitoring offering of GEOTAB
The solution provides Geotab connectivity services together with real time visibility and status, and a single global view of all SIM Cards and GEOTAB devices. Managed by Vodacom’s M2M platform and with Vodacom’s converged network at the core, the Vodacom Global Data Services Platform (GDSP) solution is proven and tested globally. Furthermore, the solution has been specifically designed to remove cost and inefficiency from asset monitoring and control.
Thus better service can be provided to GEOTAB Customers
Benefits of the GEOTAB and Vodacom Global M2M SIM Agreement
- A single global SIM which can be deployed in M2M devices across the world without country customisation, simplifying planned and future deployment.
- A unique central technology with secure end-to-end connectivity from M2M devices in any country, across partner networks (National Roaming) providing central control.
- The Vodacom M2M technology is purpose-designed to fulfil identified M2M business needs.
- National Roaming – in order to ensure service availability via network redundancy.
- Where there are roaming agreements with more than one operator in a country, the GDSP SIM allows connectivity to more than one operator using a single SIM.
Security Benefits of the GEOTAB and Vodacom Global M2M SIM Agreement
- APN designed specifically for the customer to ensure that data connectivity remains within the VPN of the customer.
- The SIM cannot be abused for data usage on other networks or the internet
- Where internet is used as backhaul connectivity, GDSP requires a list of destination IP addresses configured into an Access Control List to limit communication to only the applicable customer servers – no general internet abuse possible
- Access Control List on the connectivity ensures that SIMs cannot be abused to communicate between devices on the same APN.
- SMS is limited to within the environment of the GDSP platform. Any SMS sent to the device or originating from the device has to be via the GDSP platform. This also provides a level of control to the customer by being able to manage which SMS has come from the devices and which need to be delivered to the devices
- Voice is not activated on this platform. If voice is required as part of the solution, this would be activated in a closed group.
- Calls will only be possible from one location to the devices and alternatively devices can only make calls to one location.
- Other voice calls would be discarded
- USSD which is used for fraud in various scenarios is not supported on the GDSP platform
- The SIM management console of the GDSP is only accessible from locations which have been whitelisted ensuring that the management platform is protected from attacks
Billing Benefits of the GEOTAB and Vodacom Global M2M SIM Agreement
- Flexible Billing and Reporting
- Customer specific billing build around the SIM roll-out plan and usage patterns ensures that the customer is provided with the best possible pricing
- Roaming buckets allow for the customer to manage on which networks the SIM roams by grouping the SIMs accordingly.
- Using this the customer has control to avoid more expensive networks if not needs or adding these if connectivity is essential
- Near real time reporting providing various levels of usage details ranging from customer overview down to detailed itemized usage per SIM
- Through the web management portal, the customer has access to a number of standard reports. This allows the customer to manage the installed base and view usage patterns for individual or group of SIMs.
- The customer may also use the APIs to extract information to their own processing systems.
