By Francois Giudice, Correspondent France

Orange, Sierra Wireless, LACROIX, and STMicroelectronics  Monday announced  the creation of the IoT Continuum – a partnership that aims to simplify and accelerate the mass deployment of IoT in Europe and beyond.

By bringing together for the first time expertise across the entire IoT industry (Connectivity, Hardware, Software, Design and Manufacturing) under one roof, partners of the IoT Continuum will support international businesses to accelerate the deployment and industrialization of Massive IoT over LTE (including Cat M and Cat 1) and 5G.

A three-step process (“start, prove, deploy and scale”) has been put in place by the partners to support businesses’ IoT projects on cellular networks, from ideation to industrialization, without having to liaise with multiple players on the market. IoT Continuum offers a combination of leading industry players who will improve project risk management for businesses. Customers will be able to join the process at any stage, according to their needs.

As part of these processes, the partners will:

• Provide any business and their vertical of choice a set of components and solutions validated on the Orange network, and the necessary industrial tools to deploy wide-scale IoT services on cellular networks
• Reduce the complexity, development time and cost for businesses to realize IoT use cases by providing already pre-integrated building blocks including hardware and software (STMicroelectronics, Sierra Wireless), connectivity and IoT Services (Orange), design and manufacturing (LACROIX)
• Provide guidance and expertise to ease the overall process and help customers maximize their benefits to scale IoT deployments economically

The IoT Continuum aims to increase the confidence of businesses by addressing the current uncertainty, complexity and reduce costs to IoT deployment, bolstering the burgeoning IoT ecosystem in Europe and beyond. The partners will also promote eSIM and 5G technologies to drive Massive IoT and are committed to helping customers develop a digitalized approach on IoT Continuum.

This will also enable new business models to accelerate the digital transformation of international industries and unleash the potential of IoT technology in areas of critical growth, including Smart Buildings, Automotive, Health, Smart Cities and Smart Industries.

IoT Continuum partners state: “We joined forces and created the IoT Continuum to streamline the management of cellular IoT projects in Europe and beyond.  By combining our various expertise and knowledge of the IoT industry, we create a joint and unique offering to meet market demand and bring customers to more successful at scale IoT deployments on cellular networks, furthering the digital transformation of international businesses, no matter their vertical.”