Russia is set to get its first taste of commercial machine-to-machine (M2M) services following a deal between the country’s third-largest operator, VimpelCom, and M2M vendor Jasper Wireless. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed, but it aims to foster development of embedded mobile devices such as e-readers, digital photo frames, cameras, personal navigation, mobile Internet and gaming devices, as well as bringing automation and ‘advanced control’ to different verticals (transport and logistics, banking and payment, security and tracking, telemetry and monitoring or e-health care).

For California-based Jasper, the deal is its latest in a line of operator customers. AT&T, KPN, Rogers and Telcel are already using its kit. With many mobile markets around the world at over 100 percent penetration amid flattening ARPU, this year is the first time the industry has seen a concerted push behind the potential of M2M as mobile’s next growth driver. M2M is a general concept referring to the exchange of information in data format between two remote machines through either the mobile or fixed network. It doesn’t require human intervention and it has a set of specific features regarding traffic and SIM cards.  Other operators to have backed the technology include Vodafone, Telenor, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Telefonica.