OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2016. VimpelCom Group (NASDAQ: VIP), a leading global provider of telecommunications and digital services headquartered in Amsterdam and serving over 200 million customers, and Cisco, today announced that VimpelCom has selected Cisco Jasper to be the Smart Connectivity management platform across its network operator properties globally. The partnership is aimed at enhancing commercial opportunities internationally for the business-to-business segment.

Using the Cisco Jasper M2M/IoT platform, VimpelCom business customers will be able to implement, manage, and monetize M2M/IoT services, such as fleet management and smart metering, through seamless device connectivity. VimpelCom business customers will also be able to expand those services to their customers across all markets that are served by VimpelCom.

Eug?ne Viskovic, VimpelCom Group Chief Business Officer, said: “VimpelCom is focused on developing its digital strategy and the Group is investing in new and innovative technologies that will enable our customers to fully embrace the digital economy, now and in the future. This partnership will provide our business customers with new technologies such as M2M and IoT.”

The Cisco Jasper Control Center platform provides real-time visibility and management of M2M connections to underpin commercial IoT services. Using Cisco Jasper’s Control Center, VimpelCom customers can remotely manage M2M/IoT devices, set up rules to control SIM activity, reduce data costs, and automate associated business processes. As a result, businesses can easily deliver new IoT services that enhance their customers’ experiences while introducing new revenue models.

Any customer on VimpelCom’s mobile network will also benefit from the highly-scalable Cisco Jasper M2M/IoT platform, which not only provides control over their IoT services across VimpelCom’s markets, but also has the global scale needed to easily expand those services to meet demand in new markets. Cisco Jasper partners with 33 mobile operator groups that represent more than 120 mobile operator networks worldwide. As a result, when businesses are ready to scale their operations to countries outside of VimpelCom’s markets, they can quickly and easily do so. 

Kalle Ward, Managing Director EMEAR, IoT Cloud at Cisco Jasper, said: “Through this partnership, Cisco Jasper will enable innovative global enterprises to capitalize on IoT services and capture their share of the connected service market. Our collaboration with VimpelCom will enable enterprises to pioneer industry transformation, introduce new business models, and create never-before-seen, high-value experiences for their customers.” 

VimpelCom offers digital, cloud, and connectivity products and services for business and government customers operating in emerging markets. With more than 4,000 dedicated business specialists, VimpelCom is a leader in implementing M2M technologies through network applications and managed services across multiple markets including Russia, Italy, Algeria, Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, and Eurasia.

Disclaimer

This release contains “forward-looking statements”, as the phrase is defined in Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and include statements relating to, among other things, VimpelCom’s digital strategy development, the implementation of the Smart Connectivity management platform, and the expected benefits and results of the M2M and IoT services. The forward-looking statements included in this release that expresses or implies VimpelCom’s or Cisco Jasper’s intentions, beliefs, expectations or predictions (and the assumptions underlying them) is a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The actual outcome may differ materially from these statements as a result of: continued volatility in the economies in the markets where the companies operate; unforeseen developments from competition; governmental regulation of the telecommunications or digital industries; general political uncertainties in the markets where the companies operate; and government investigations or other regulatory actions and/or litigation with third parties. Certain other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any forward-looking statements include the risk factors described in VimpelCom’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other public filings made by VimpelCom with the SEC. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and VimpelCom and Cisco Jasper each expressly disclaims any obligation to update them or to announce publicly any revision to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this release, or to make corrections to reflect future events or developments.