California-based Jasper Wireless and mobile network operator Telefónica has announced a partnership to connect machine-to-machine and consumer electronics devices.

They say their collaboration will speed up the arrival of new mobile-enabled consumer devices.

The number of mobile machine-to-machine connections is expected to exceed last year's forecast, according to ABI Research. It it's raised its prediction of about 225 million connections worldwide by 2014 to 232.5 million, with over 297 million M2M connections anticipated in 2015.

This week's edition of The Fonecast included an except from an interview about Smart Metering and Machine-to-Machine communication with telecoms consultant Ross Catley.

The full interview is now available to download as a special podcast from our website, from our RSS podcast feed and from iTunes.

In recent months there’s been a lot of talk about smart metering and the wider subject of machine-to-machine communications. With well over 100% penetration of mobile phones in the UK, the promise of machines exchanging information over the mobile network offers operators a new opportunity for growth.

To explain more about the technology and the potential, we invited Ross Catley to join us for this week’s edition of The Fonecast. Ross has worked in the utility & telecommunications industries and is now a consultant who advises on smart metering.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

In a special extended interview, Ross Catley speaks to Mark and James about smart metering in the UK. He explains the basics of 'smart meters', talks about the benefits for consumers and discusses the ways this technology will affect the mobile phone industry.