Swiss incumbent Swisscom has set up a new unit that will specialise in M2M communications including mobile health applications. The company has identified M2M as an area where it is experiencing traffic growth and is looking to capitalise on the trend. It experienced a “roughly 10 percent” growth in demand for machine-to-machine communications in Q3 2011 and estimates that “over the long term more than 100 million machines”  in Switzerland will use the cellular network to connect with each other.

Among the M2M applications highlighted by the Swiss operator are enabling medical devices to wirelessly transfer patients’ blood pressure readings online (other uses include remote reading of electricity meters and the monitoring of traffic jams). To drive the new unit forward Swisscom has hired an executive called Gerhard Schedler who is from outside the company and has experience in the M2M market. He was previously the chief executive of Identec Solutions, a specialist in using sensor equipment to track vehicles and for safety applications. Schedler left Identec last month.