Japan’s SoftBank Mobile and Canada’s Bell Mobility have joined the Global M2M Association (GMA), an organisation initially set up by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia and TeliaSonera.

The organisation is working in a number of vertical industry segments to promote M2M services, including automotive, vehicle telematics, healthcare and consumer electronics.

“We see demand for M2M solutions dramatically increasing as our customers in a variety of industries expand their services worldwide,” said Hiroshi Akabori, vice president at SoftBank Mobile and SoftBank Telecom.

Nauby Jacob, Bell Mobility’s VP of products, services and content, said that by partnering with GMA the operator can offer “Canadian business access to international best practices, service and support, improving the management of their M2M deployments worldwide”.

For more information on the initiative watch this video interview with Deutsche Telekom’s Markus Breitbach.