At a juncture, when M2M technology is offering the highest growth potential in the ICT industry, Telekom Austria Group (News - Alert) a provider of a range of fixed line, mobile, data, and Internet communications services recently entered the sector with the setting up of a new subsidiary for M2M business.

In a press release, Telekom Austria Group announced that the subsidiary, called the Telekom Austria Group M2M GmbH was established in August 2011. The new company is expected to act as the competence and service center of the Telekom Austria Groupand focus exclusively on the development and marketing of M2M services.

According to CEO of the Telekom Austria Group and A1 Hannes Ametsreiter, the day is not too far away when cars, domestic appliances, service centers and applications will be connected to each other online. M2M thus offers a very promising area of business, and Telekom Austria is resolved to benefit from the new business opportunities that M2M will open up in a few years time.

“We are facing a very promising development of the M2M business. In a couple of years it will be absolutely common, that cars, domestic appliances, service centers and applications are connected to each other online. In this framework of a highly innovative field of business we position ourselves as enabler of new business models,” Ametsreiter explained in a statement.

The sources at the company revealed, In the start-up phase, the new M2M subsidiary will concentrate on eight main application areas where M2M is of special importance: Automotive, consumer electronics, health care, logistics and transportation, retail and payments, security and surveillance, industrial and smart business as well as energy and utilities. The company targets the international corporate customers and plans to provide them with in-depth M2M industry know-how along the entire value chain from product design to the implementation and operation of M2M solutions

“The Telekom Austria Group has been a long-standing and reliable partner for communications solutions in the business customer segment. We are now bundling our extensive know-how in terms of data communications and billing systems for a new emerging field of business,” Bernd Liebscher, managing director of the Telekom Austria Group M2M GmbH, commented in the statement.

The Telekom Austria Group has already established a significant market presence in Central and Eastern Europe. These markets are expected to create a good launching pad for the new M2M business for Telekom Austria. This newly dedicated business unit is also expected to foster individual initiatives in the local companies, the company said in the press release.

Early this year, The Telekom Austria Group announced that it is taking a major step towards the Global Village with the launch of a new international data roaming tariff, “abroadband”. The new product will allow customers to surf the net with their laptops, netbooks, tablets or smartphones in more than 50 countries around the world at a standard price of 59 cents per MB, regardless of their mobile provider. From now on, both leisure and business travelers will benefit from high-speed mobile Internet access with downloading rates of up to 7.2 Mbps along with guaranteed cost security, saving up to 80 percent compared to conventional roaming tariffs.