Communication holding company, AT&T, and General Electric have teamed up to create the first ever high-security wireless communications system.
The two companies signed a global agreement this month that lets GE machines to connect to the AT&T network and cloud, allowing customers of GE's "Industrial Internet" to benefit from increased productivity.
The machine-to-machine (M2M) communications system will allow GE employees to remotely track, monitor, record and operate GE machinery, according to AT&T.
Through the partnership, AT&T and GE also plan to develop offerings that combine AT&T network technologies, single Global subscriber identity module (SIM), device expertise, security and cloud access for GE industrial products. AT&T also plans to use its AT&T Foundry innovation center to develop M2M solutions for GE's software platform Predix.
"Imagine a world where an airline for example can remotely monitor, diagnose and resolve issues with its fleet engines virtually anywhere in the world," said Andy Geisse, chief executive officer, AT&T Business Solutions. "GE's vision of the Industrial Internet combined with our global network and leadership in machine-to-machine solutions are a powerful combination to help businesses realize the benefits of connected machines."
"GE's collaboration with AT&T validates our shared and common vision for the Industrial Internet," said Bill Ruh, vice president and corporate officer for GE Software. "Together, we see a future where the intersection of people, data and brilliant machines will have an enormous impact on the productivity and efficiency of industries around the world. By connecting machines to the network and the cloud, we are taking an important step to enable workers all around the world to track, monitor, and operate our machinery wirelessly and remotely through highly secure and machine-to-machine communications."
