Orange boosts Viasat’s telematics offering with IoT connectivity
Orange moves into insurance market with IoT partnership
Orange moves into insurance market with IoT partnership

Orange boosts Viasat’s telematics offering with IoT connectivity

Orange Business Services has signed a three-year deal with Viasat Group to improve fleet driver safety and lower insurance premiums through IoT.

As part of a multi-million Euro contract, Orange will provide Viasat customers in Italy with global connectivity via 350,000 roaming-enabled SIM cards.

Viasat, which specializes in telematics, will benefit from IoT connectivity that will allow its telematics boxes to send and receive data, SMS and voice remotely. Combined with a satellite positioning service, Viasat claims it will be able to provide a comprehensive insurance solution.

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Orange IoT connectivity

Viasat will also incorporate the Orange IoT management platform, allowing customers to manage and update their business SIM cards, including ordering, suspending and reactivating SIMs, setting alarms on data consumption, and blocking SIM cards if data thresholds are crossed.

The companies claim this will offer customers a better, safer driving experience and potential reductions on the average cost of insurance premiums for business fleets.

“Our telematics solutions need global coverage to provide a complete service for our customers in the fleet and insurance industries,” said Massimo Getto, vice president and CFO, Viasat Group.

“Among our partners, we selected Orange Business Services for IoT connectivity because of their wide coverage, flat rate pricing across the EU and comprehensive international support.”

Related: 10 leading partnerships driving IoT adoption in insurance

Committed to digital transformation

Orange Business Service’s IoT connectivity is part of Datavenue, a modular IoT and analytics solution. It enables the analysis of data from connected objects or things across a variety of sectors, and is part of the offering to Viasat.

“Viasat needed multi-roaming capabilities to cover 100 percent of its markets and an international partner with global reach and support, capable of managing a very high number of SIM cards,” said Helmut Reisinger, executive vice president International, Orange Business Services.

“With our full-service Datavenue offer, we can contribute to an improved driver experience, all while supporting Viasat’s business.”

When asked how exactly this will improve the driver experience, Orange Business Services’ IoT client director, Aaron Gutierrez Quintana, said: “Thanks to the performance of our network, which is regularly updated to integrate the newest technologies (2G, 3G, 4G and soon 5G), we insure great quality of service for the end user. However, it’s ViaSat, not Orange, that has the relationship with, and provides the service to, the end user.”