Phoenix Contact Allies with Vodafone for M2M

Communications provider Vodafone and Phoenix Contact signed a collaboration contract to offer complete solutions for industrial data communication in the mobile network. According to a report in Control Engineering Europe, the two companies are convinced that a high percentage of control systems in the future will be connected via telecommunication networks.

Phoenix Contact says it is in a good position with regards to M2M applications because it has had extensive experience with industrial communications over the years and has continued to develop its range of industrial modems.

“We are absolutely certain that 100 percent of the PLCs, DCS systems and PC-based control systems will, in the future, be integrated in telecontrol, remote maintenance and diagnostic concepts. A high percentage of these applications will be networked via telecommunication networks,” said Christoph Leifer, head of the interface business area, Phoenix Contact Electronics.

Leifer said the two companies have pooled their know-how and skill sets to offer complete solution packages, including industrial modems and SIM cards for industrial applications as well as services. He said the deliverables would include complete preconfigured solutions, and gave examples of service applicaions.

“Say an industrial customer has a problem with his machine. The machine manufacturer wants to help the customer by providing remote diagnostics, resolve the problem and download a new firmware – or download current production data using this dial-up connection. In this case, our solution package is an industrial modem with an antenna for the control cabinet as well as the Vodafone IndustrialConnect tariff. Every machine and plant has its own data call number,” he explained.

For Vodafone, Holger Bühl, sales manager Germany M2M, said: “The area of machine-to-machine communication is one of the most important growth markets for Vodafone Deutschland. We offer complete solutions for the automated exchange of information between machines, automats or vehicles. In this field, we increasingly work with partners and bundle our know how in a market-specific way. We are pleased about the cooperation with Phoenix Contact that will help us to cover a much broader range in this segment.”