PARIS, France and NEEDHAM, MA, Apr 4, 2016 – The Altice Group, a leading multinational cable, fiber, telecommunications, contents, and media company, and PTC today announced the deployment of PTC’s industry-leading ThingWorx IoT platform across two Altice Groupbusinesses: SFR, the leading cable television and internet-access provider for enterprise customers in metropolitan France, and Portugal Telecom, the country’s leading integrated service provider in fixed broadband, mobile operations, and business services for small to mid-sized businesses (SMB).
This agreement reflects the shared strategy between the two companies to facilitate IoT implementations across SMBs, and to offer a complete, secure, and scalable IoT platform for the rapid development of IoT applications.
The Altice Group is a fast-growing global enterprise with presence in Western Europe, the United States, Israel, and the French Overseas Territories. The Group provides very high speed services (high-quality pay television, fast broadband Internet, and fixed-line telephony) and, in certain countries, mobile telephony services to residential and corporate customers. With PTC ThingWorx technology, the Altice Group will be able to offer a wide range of IoT applications to its customers.
“After a thorough review of IoT technology options, we selected the ThingWorx IoT platform to get us to market much faster and to reach a wider group of constituents – SMB to enterprise – in a secure and scalable manner,” said Michel Combes, CEO, SFR. “This is an important next step in driving our IoT strategy and the many innovative services and solutions that we are working to bring to market.”
ThingWorx is an innovative platform for rapidly developing and deploying applications that recognize and capitalize on the opportunity and value to be found in the emerging IoT market. The fast, simplified, and unified approach by ThingWorx to develop IoT applications enables companies to iteratively innovate business processes significantly faster than conventional methods and tools, thus accelerating time to value, reducing cost and risk, and transforming how products, people, and systems connect and interact.
The ThingWorx platform makes it easy for partners, such as the Altice Group, to deliver the most relevant solutions and provide access to a large number of devices, machines or natively compatible connected modules. Companies that require access to more specific business solutions can also rely on a set of certified technology partners in the ThingWorx ecosystem. The platform provides companies with a large variety of application program interfaces for ease in sharing data with third-party solutions.
“The launch of IoT services and solutions across SFR and Portugal Telecom opens up new areas of business, broadens our coverage, and gives us new reach in the European market,” said Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC. “We are looking forward to working with the Altice Group as they build their IoT footprint and bring exciting new value to customers around the globe.”
Additional information is available at ThingWorx Application Development Platform Overview.
About PTC
PTC is a global provider of technology platforms and solutions that transform how companies create, operate, and service the “things” in the Internet of Things (IoT). The company’s next-generation ThingWorx® technology platform gives developers the tools they need to capture, analyze, and capitalize on the vast amounts of data being generated by smart, connected products and systems. The company’s field-proven solutions are deployed in more than 26,000 businesses worldwide to generate a product or service advantage. PTC’s award-winning CEO, considered an industry thought leader, co-authored the definitive guides to the impact of the IoT on business in the Harvard Business Review.
About Altice
Founded by telecom entrepreneur, Patrick Drahi, Altice is a multinational cable, fiber, telecommunications, contents and media company with presence in four regions -‐ Western Europe (comprising France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland), the United States, Israel, and the Overseas Territories (currently comprising the French Caribbean, the Indian Ocean regions and the Dominican Republic). Altice provides very high speed based services (high quality pay television, fast broadband Internet and fixed line telephony) and, in certain countries, mobile telephony services to residential and corporate customers.
About SFR
A global operator, SFR holds prime positions in all of France’s telecommunications market segments, from consumer to B-to-B, local authorities and wholesale. Being the sole owner of its infrastructures, the Group pairs two powerful networks and, thanks to its investments, SFR aims to rapidly extend its fiber and 4G coverage to every corner of the country whilst offering optimal service quality.
Building on from the existing top-tier fiber optics network and a leading mobile network, SFR aims to create the nation’s new leader in the combined broadband and mobile markets.
SFR offers a comprehensive range of Internet-access, fixed-line, mobile and audiovisual services.
SFR is also an expert for solutions in the fields of unified communications, Machine-to-Machine and cloud computing for businesses.
On the Consumer segment, the Group operates under the SFR and RED by SFR brands. On the B-to-B segment, it operates under the SFR Business brand, serving over 190,000 companies.
The Group serves 21.9 million mobile customers and 6.4 million households subscribing to broadband services.
Listed on Euronext Paris (Euronext NUM) and owned by Altice group (78%), the Group posted turnover of €11 billion in 2015 and gathers a total of 14,500 men and women.