Private equity firm Inverness Graham Investments has invested in M2M enabler RACO Wireless with the goal of helping the firm grow its business and acquire other M2M firms and technologies.
RACO currently handles a great deal of T-Mobile USA's 2G M2M business. According to RACO President John Horn this deal will give the company the necessary capital to make acquisitions and expand its portfolio of products. "Our plan is to grow the business," Horn told FierceWireless. "We are a player and want to be a true leader. We have an aggressive strategy to do that."
Horn noted that there has been a lot of consolidation among M2M companies lately and he believes more consolidation is necessary to make the market more streamlined and easier for companies that want to add wireless connectivity to their products to navigate. "I think that consolidation will help this space," Horn said.
Horn also said that he believes the proposed merger of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) is a good thing for the M2M industry because it will give T-Mobile USA more spectrum for its LTE deployment, thus taking pressure off its 2G 1900 MHz PCS spectrum. Prior to the merger, T-Mobile had said it would refarm its 1900 MHz spectrum from 100 percent GSM to mostly HSPA+ with a bit of the 2G services remaining to accommodate the company's M2M customers and its 2G roaming partners. Now with the MetroPCS merger, the company will also convert MetroPCS' 1900 MHz network to HSPA+ giving it more room for the 2G network. "This reaffirms that T-Mobile USA is committed to 2G for M2M," Horn said.
The move is notable considering competitor AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) plans to shut down its 2G network by 2017 as it refarms that spectrum and deploys more advanced services.
For more:
- see this release
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