China Mobile announced a partnership with Ericsson to combine efforts on the Internet of Things (IoT), as part of the operator’s ambition to serve 200 million connected devices by the end of the year.

In a statement, the companies announced they signed a strategic agreement during a China Mobile Global Partner Conference in December covering an “in-depth cooperation to manage connections efficiently, provide a consistent service to global enterprise customers” and explore new IoT markets.

The make-up of the partnership will see the Chinese operator use Ericsson’s Device Connectivity Platform to improve the process of connecting devices, while also deploying services to help drive new revenue.

Ericsson’s IoT platform launched in 2008 and today supports more than 1,500 industry customers through 24 operators.

China Mobile said it will also be able to integrate resources of its roaming partners and offer global enterprise customers connectivity based on its service level agreements. It said it will further benefit “from a common and unified approach to customer portals and selection of access networks”.

For Ericsson, the deal marks another step in its push around IoT as it continues to diversify amid a downturn in its core networks business. In addition to its Device Connection Platform, Ericsson also works with the global M2M association and the Bridge Alliance.

Chris Houghton (pictured), head of Region North East Asia at Ericsson, said IoT applications “will also help to promote the development and deployment of 5G technology.

“We look forward to supporting China Mobile and developing this business while accelerating large-scale deployments of Internet of Things across the world.”