Following on from the announcement before Christmas of SensorLogic’s assets being acquired by Gemalto/Cinterion, the new year has brought news about two others on Beecham Research’s list of the Top 16 movers and shakers in M2M Service Enablement.

News received on Friday (January 5, 2012) of Verizon’s move to buy the 50% of nPhase it didn’t already own were followed on Monday (January 9) by AT&T announcing a new, higher level resale agreement for Axeda’s services.

Actions like these were predicted in Beecham Research’s latest report on M2M Service Enablement Services, just published (for details, click here).

For Verizon, the choice of nPhase was the logical one in order to achieve a totally integrated M2M service. At a personal level, it represents a triumph for nPhase founder Steve Pazol in steering the company through its third ownership transaction to what should now be a stable outcome. It remains to be seen if Verizon can build its momentum in the M2M market through this deal.

Previously, Axeda’s services were available from AT&T through a co-sale arrangement so this announcement represents a deeper commitment by AT&T in Axeda’s services. It is reminiscent of AT&T’s already well-established partnership with Jasper Wireless and confirms the complementary nature of Jasper’s and Axeda’s services. The deal is “an exclusive among major U.S. mobile carriers” to create AT&T M2M Application Platform powered by Axeda, which presumably impacts both Verizon and particularly Sprint. It is also unclear as yet if these announcements will affect nPhase’s partnership agreement with Axeda.

So what next in this rapidly developing part of the M2M market?

Beecham’s report concludes that “SE Services represent a significant future revenue opportunity for MNOs, resellers and M2M suppliers. We expect SE services to be a catalyst for great change in the M2M market and to accelerate visibility and market development. We also expect SE services to provide a significant opportunity for differentiation between market players”.

With this in mind, one can speculate that the European carriers are not far behind. With the pace quickening in this part of the M2M market, we shouldn’t have to wait long for the next instalment.