BROWSING: Smart Cities

UK based software company Aveva, majority owned by France based automation specialist Schneider Electric, has struck a deal to acquire US data management outfit OSIsoft for $5 billion. OSIsoft is backed by Japan-based tech firm Softbank. The pair said they will “service the largest...

Germany has issued 67 local spectrum licences for private LTE and 5G to enterprises since November 2019. What should we make of this number, and the run-rate so far for industrial-grade cellular in the home of Industrie 4.0? Because 67 does not sound like that...

Vehicle maker Ford, automotive supplier Bosch, and property developer Bedrock are combining on a demonstration project in Detroit, Michigan, to automated valet parking, so vehicles drive and park themselves in an enclosed garage. The project, at Bedrock’s Assembly Garage in Detroit, is billed as the...

Australia is both the flattest continent on earth and, with the exception of Antarctica, the driest. You can travel 2,000-odd miles across its plains, between Sydney and Perth, without seeing very much at all. At the same time, Australia’s population is spiralling; it is...

Blockchain-based LoRaWAN network operator and hotspot maker Helium has expanded to more than 1,000 cities in North America, and started rolling out in Europe, and announced a new deals with LoRa-maker Semtech. Helium presents itself as the ‘people’s network’ and the ‘first peer-to-peer wireless network’....

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has pulled together a consortium of industry, government, non-profit, and academic bodies to develop artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to help with disaster response. Microsoft is co-chairing the group, called the First Five Consortium, with the DOE’s Artificial Intelligence...

Vodafone is to supply 5G infrastructure and connectivity to a new port automation project for the Port of Kiel, at the Kiel Fjord, a 17 kilometre inlet of the Baltic Sea in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. Vodafone will extend 5G coverage...

Shipments of asset trackers will increase by more than 50 percent annually through 2024, driven by growth in low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks and smaller, cheaper and smarter IoT devices.  Asset tracking is one of the highest-growth segments in the IoT market, concludes a new study...

Semtech is offering new developer kits for LoRa-based asset tracking and smart building applications that integrate with IoT services from Amazon Web Services (AWS). California-based software firm Tensor IoT is also involved, providing cloud applications to connect LoRa sensors to AWS services. The asset...

Telecoms operator du, formerly Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), has partnered with Germany-based Software AG to offer a subscription-based digital-change offer to UAE based enterprises. The pair called it a “first of its kind collaboration” and the “largest IoT partnership for business solutions” in...

Deutsche Telekom is to build a “new type” of LTE-based campus network using spectrum from its public network to test drone deliveries of medical supplies. The deployment is at the university city of Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The LTE installation will be a...

A new Bluetooth specification is being developed so wearable devices can participate in existing smartphone-based coronavirus (COVID-19) notification systems, being deployed with Bluetooth technology. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has said it is working to standardise extension of the Bluetooth-based Exposure Notification System (ENS),...

Verizon has launched (relaunched?) an IoT marketplace on its ThingSpace platform for customers to purchase, activate and manage customised IoT solutions.It has also announced a five-year contract with German pharmaceutical firm Bayer to build a cloud-based “next-generation global network infrastructure”. ThingSpace was introduced back in...

The autonomous vehicle corridor will go from Detroit to Ann Arbor Last week, Michigan announced that it is working with Cavnue, a subsidiary of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, to explore the eventual development of a connected and autonomous vehicle (AV) corridor that would run more than...

South Korean’s government-affiliated Korean Expressway Corporation (KEC) has deployed built a network based on Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol for more than 306 km of its expressways. The LoRa-based network is viewed as the “first stage” in the country’s four-year Internet of Things (IoT) deployment...

Verizon is deploying real-time kinematic (RTK) satellite navigation on its 5G network in the US, to offer hyper-precise positioning with centimetre-level location accuracy for IoT tracking services, and notably development of drone deliveries and autonomous vehicles. Standard GPS positioning affords location accuracy of three-to-nine metres;...

NTT Data, the business services division of NTT Group, is working with open RAN provider Mavenir to jointly develop a “complete range” of radio and core access solutions, plus data and device management platforms and analytics tools, for private 5G and 4G networks in...

Texas-based Apptricity has launched a long-range Bluetooth beacon capable of connecting sensors at distances of up to 20 miles outdoors, and up to 20 storeys indoors. It is presented as a low-cost alternative to LTE and satellite for long-range IoT connectivity, and a simpler...

Software AG has released a social distancing solution via its partners, including Dell Technologies and Tech Mahindra, to help companies navigate the complexities of virus spreading in the workplace. The solution is being piloted by food production facilities and process manufacturing plants “across Europe”,...

US tech giant Microsoft and Italian natural gas utility Snam are developing a hybrid cloud infrastructure based on Azure to raise the processing power within Snam’s IoT sensor network, to bring efficiency and flexibility to its operations. The deal will help to build the...

Note, this article originally appeared as a blog post on the Guidehouse Insights website; it is reprinted here with permission. The original article can be found here.  “La ville du quart d’heure” was a key theme for Anne Hidalgo during her successful reelection campaign for mayor of...

The city of Liverpool has just won a £4.3 million fund, topped-up to £7.15 million, from the UK government to build a private 5G network for local health and social care services, and other public bodies. The project will establish a private millimeter wave...

UK telecoms firm BT has unveiled a new augmented reality (AR) demo as part of its ‘connected industry’ showcase at its Adastral Park science campus. The enhanced industrial IoT exhibit is one of nine functional digital-change showcases, arranged like a “Disneyland for industry decision...

The rail transport division of Japanese industrial conglomerate Hitachi Group has announced a deal to acquire UK-based rail technology firm Perpetuum for an undisclosed fee. Perpetuum, based in Southampton, offers train monitoring solutions that combine IoT-based wireless sensors and AI-based data analytics to enable train...