Telecoms operator Beeline Kazakhstan, also known as Kar-Tel, has partnered with Cisco Jasper in order to deliver IoT services.
The telco, part of the Dutch company Veon, claims it is the first mobile operator in Kazakhstan to adopt Cisco Jasper Control Center, the networking company’s connectivity platform for managing IoT devices.
Kar-Tel is looking to get ahead of its competitors, by offering enterprise customers in the Central Asian nation the opportunity to launch, manage and subsequently monetize IoT services. The benefit of this service is that Cisco Jasper will give businesses the means to properly oversee and manage IoT devices in real-time.
In the first quarter of 2017, supposedly more than 9 million customers used Kar-Tel’s services, providing some indication of the potential market for IoT services in the world’s largest landlocked country.
Specific industries and apps
In pairing KaR-Tel’s mobile network with Cisco Jasper, Kar-Tel says it hopes that enterprises will begin to explore the possibilities of IoT for smart meters and connected cars, among other applications.
In particular, Kar-Tel executives believe that sectors like retail and agriculture will be the first to benefit in Kazakhstan, allowing retailers the chance to offer a more personalized experience to customers and providing farmers with the means to better kill off pests and improve crop yields.
Read more: Benton County, Tennessee, gets network to roll out smart meters
An opportunity for Kazakhstan
Speaking about the significance of this partnership for Kazakhstan, Rauan Kabdrakhimov, corporate sales director at KaR-Tel, said “Businesses throughout Kazakhstan are embracing IoT and its ability to shift business value from the products they produce to the services that they can now deliver by connecting those products.”
“We are excited to help enable this transformation for our business customers, and to help them deliver services that generate recurring revenues, while also enhancing their customers’ experiences.
Kabdrakhimov added that Cisco was “the natural choice as our IoT platform partner”, being one of the largest players in this space. Indeed, since Cisco partners with more than 50 service providers that manage IoT devices across more than 550 mobile networks worldwide, Kar-Tel hopes that this partnership might also enable businesses in Kazakhstan to offer their services to an international audience.
Read more: Live from Las Vegas, Cisco Jasper announces Control Center 7.0