T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the first-of-its-kind embedded SIM for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) solutions. Nearly the size of a head of a pin, the durable embedded SIM withstands challenging environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and motion to deliver reliable wireless connectivity. The embedded SIM is ideal for telematics and smart grid infrastructure solutions where environmental factors may reduce reliability and increase maintenance costs of removable SIM-based solutions.

The embedded SIM preserves many of the benefits of a GSM-based SIM solution (authentication, encryption and storage), but at a fraction the size of the traditional SIM you’d find in a mobile phone. In addition to the much smaller size, the embedded SIM differs from today’s SIMs in that it’s built from silicon — not plastic. The embedded SIM is designed to be hard-mounted onto M2M modules, accelerating deployment by allowing customers to go directly from the factory to the field without having to provision and manually insert a SIM card. These features deliver an innovation opportunity for equipment and solution providers to work with T-Mobile in bringing smaller, more durable and cost-effective M2M solutions to market.

“T-Mobile’s embedded SIM solution drives efficiencies, speeds time to market, and extends the life of M2M solutions even in the toughest environments,” said John Horn, national director of M2M, T-Mobile USA. “With our simple, streamlined certification process, we expect partners to have commercial solutions based on this new technology running on the T-Mobile network as soon as this summer.”

Among the first to implement the embedded SIM into its M2M systems is Echelon Corp. In a related announcement today, Echelon and T-Mobile announced an alliance designed to accelerate the adoption of the smart grid in the North American market by reducing the cost of communicating smart meters using Echelon’s Networked Energy Services (NES) system over T-Mobile’s GSM cellular service. This addresses the Communication costs associated with remote meter reading using utility private networks that are traditionally a large expense for utilities.

The availability of pervasive, affordable wireless data connectivity combined with key advancements like the embedded SIM, are removing the barriers to M2M adoption. Industries such as agriculture, automotive, energy, fleet management, healthcare, manufacturing and vending can benefit from these advancements and the intelligent connectivity provided by M2M systems.

“M2M services are experiencing impressive growth, and we’ve predicted that the US enterprise M2M cellular service market will reach nearly 20 million connections by 2012,” said Steve Hilton, vice president of Yankee Group’s Anywhere Enterprise research group. “According to recent Yankee Group research, speeding time to market and simplifying the sales process by compressing the supply chain is critical. T-Mobile’s embedded SIM offering further accelerates the M2M market opportunity.”

T-Mobile USA has experienced strong-year-over year growth in M2M connections since it started its M2M business unit six years ago. T-Mobile’s robust GSM nationwide network provides a reliable infrastructure for always-connected services that help companies reduce operating costs, automate and streamline regular data collection tasks and drive new levels of business control and efficiency. T-Mobile is dedicated to being the easiest mobile operator to conduct business with for M2M solutions by creating a streamlined certification process and a flexible approach to activation. For more information, please e-mail M2Minfo@t-mobile.com.