Actility is pleased to announce a new technology partnership with telecom provider Swisscom in the area of LPWA/IoT (Internet of Things). The partnership will leverage both companies’ expertise in the area of IoT for the ongoing development of innovative services for emerging markets such as Smart City or Smart Building services.
Actility offers a network solution that includes ThingPark Wireless base stations, central network controllers and management platforms for low-power sensor provisioning and network monitoring. The full ThingPark solution is a key element in the roll-out of LPWA and LoRaWan networks by operators. The new vertical businesses enabled by the standards-based LoRaWan specification will be presented by Actility and other eco-system partners at the official launch of the LoRa Alliance to be held at the at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on the 4th of March.
“We foresee a significant increase in demand for Low Power Wide Area Network based solutions in the market,” states Gerhard Schedler, head of M2M at Swisscom. “We feel that Actility serves as an important ecosystem and technology partner as we explore new opportunities to meet the diverse and emerging needs of our customers.”
Leveraging the ThingPark platform for Internet of Things services
The new collaboration builds on the Thingpark IoT enabler platform designed for Smart City and/or Smart Building sensor connectivity. The ThingPark Wireless solution requires a small low-cost antenna to connect sensors in a 2-5 km radius for dense cities or in a 15 km radius for countryside applications. Actility’s ThingPark solution also includes the ThingPark Cloud infrastructure, a data storage and application development interface, and ThingPark Store, an online marketplace engine dedicated to the IoT sensors, applications and network solutions by which Actility makes the rollout of new innovative IoT services accessible to sensor vendors and network solution vendors.
“To collaborate with Swisscom in this partnership is of great value to us. Swisscom has a solid experience in M2M business, which will give us the opportunity to achieve fast roll-out of our networks and to make this project a success for both companies”, said Olivier Hersent, CEO of Actility.
LoRaWan: the protocol for Low Power Wide Area networks
The LoRa Technology used by Actility enables public or multi-tenant networks to connect multiple applications into the same network infrastructure. This means that only a few base stations are needed to cover an entire city or country, making the Internet of Things possible at minimal infrastructure investment. Following the announcement at CES in Las Vegas, the new LoRa Alliance is gaining traction as a network of industry enabling them to exchange knowledge and expertise allowing the Internet of Things to become more attractive to customers and end users. The LoRa Alliance, of which Actility is a founding member, will officially launch at the Mobile World Congress in 2015.