Sprint partners with Ontario ‘connected car’ company on usage based insurance

U.S. telecom giant Sprint announced Wednesday that a usage-based insurance offering through IMS UBI Intelligence, is now available through its insurance solutions portfolio for auto insurance customers.

The offering is provided by Intelligent Mechatronic Systems (IMS), a Waterloo, Ont.-based company that provides “DriveSync,” a “connected car” platform that includes telematics services.

Sprint launched its Integrated Insurance Solutions business in 2012. Its portfolio also includes a text disablement product.

Policyholders who use the program from Sprint through their insurers have data transmitted over the Sprint wireless network to a cloud-based system that analyzes the information with driver-scoring software.

“Our auto insurance carriers have been requesting a single source for all their UBI (usage-based insurance) needs,” Mohamed Nasser, director of M2M Product and Marketing at Sprint said in a press release.

“We have selected IMS because they provide the most complete, turnkey solution available on the market today, including hardware, logistics, support, secure data warehousing and analytics.”

IMS UBI Intelligence allows insurers to have a UBI solution without working with multiple suppliers or partners before implementation, Sprint says.

“To take full advantage of the DriveSync platform, Sprint also plans to bring additional programs to their customers, such as solutions for coaching young drivers, infotainment services, vehicle diagnostics and fleet management solutions,” the company noted Wednesday.