Several operators in the machine-to-machine (M2M) space, located in multiple continents, are partnering to give customers access to virtual global network.

The companies are Kore Telematics, in the United States; Wireless Maingate, in Sweden; Mach Communications, in Japan; and Vianet, in Scotland.  More companies will be sought as partners in other regions, officials said.

The quartet calls itself an “M2M Global Alliance,” however, “We’re talking about an alliance to deliver services on a national basis.  We’re not talking about an industry group… it’s a series of service provisioning relationships,” similar to air travel’s Oneworld or Star Alliance with non-competing companies working together, explained Alex Brisbourne, president of Kore.

Development work across the partners’ virtual networks began 15 months ago.  “It’s in effect as if any one of the alliance partners actually owned and operated facilities with connections in those countries.  We anticipate that they will be orderable from any one of the alliance parts from the end of October of this year,” Brisbourne said.

In addition to expanding into other regions, the Alliance may seek partners for IP networks, security services, or even satellite communications.

Scott Brown, president of American Trash Management, said his company discovered Kore after getting frustrated with poor service from Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless.  “Those guys don’t get it, they don’t get the customer service side of it… They don’t get what it takes to keep a machine up and running.  I have so many examples of simple little stupid things because they don’t understand that somebody like us is more interested in reliability than we are VCast on the phones,” he said, referring to Verizon’s music download service.

Brown also uses overseas services from Mach.  Of the Alliance, “We think it’s a good idea because as a small company we can’t afford to go out and make all these individual relationships around the world,” he said.

His company also uses M2M services from Kore’s U.S. competitors Aeris Communications and Jasper Wireless to help with tasks such as measuring the density of trash in a steel container – quite literally the dirty work.  Much of the data analysis is done online, which can be troublesome because most M2M companies need to improve their network management interfaces, he added.

“We just want this stuff to work,” Brown said.  “We don’t want lots of hassles.”