Xiring and SFR Enterprises are deploying what they claim is the largest machine-to-machine (M-to-M) network in the French healthcare sector.

It will enable Xiring’s remote updating service, Le Point Xiring, to be rolled out to an estimated 12,000 pharmacies at the rate of 600 every week.

Xiring launched the latest generation of its updating service – which is certified by the GIE SESAM-Vitale – in July. Le Point Xiring V2 enables the updating of the Vitale Cards 1 and 2 and complementary private health insurance. It uses French mobile operator SFR’s M-to-M wireless broadband 3G/GPRS network technology to communicate with the remote servers. The firms claim updates now take only 20 seconds on the SFR network instead of the 45 seconds they took using regular telephone networks.

A Xiring spokesperson told SDW: “The nationwide rollout is operated centrally in a completely integrated process developed and managed by Xiring. The solution – comprising the dedicated terminal plus accessories – is sent by post directly to the pharmacy, wherever it is located.”