Öresundskraft and Actility announce rollout of Swedish IoT network using unique “City Hub” model

Öresundskraft, the Swedish energy company and fibre network operator, and Actility, the industry leader in Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks , today announce that they are working together to deploy a LoRaWAN IoT communication network within the Helsingborg Open City Hub, which could be the first of many rolling out across Sweden under the auspices of the StadshubbsAlliansen (“City Hub Alliance”). In the Open City Hub model, the IoT connectivity platform is offered by the municipality as an open access, commercially neutral network available to all companies or consumers in the city. Öresundskraft provides “connectivity as a service” for the Helsingborg hub.

“A Stadshubb is a regional LoRaWAN with an open and neutral wholesale business model for connectivity,” explains Öresundskraft’s Bo Lindberg, “ which enables anyone who needs to communicate with LoRa sensors to do so  easily, without having to build or operate their own infrastructure. This siginificantly reduces the threshold for service providers and end users to establish IOT services and solutions, thus accelerating and simplifying digitalization in general and the development of the smart city in particular.”

“We’re very pleased to have been selected to partner Öresundskraft in the roll-out of this ground-breaking smart city infrastructure and innovative business model,” comments Actility CEO Olivier Hersent. “An Open City Hub creates significant benefits for companies, residents and society in the region. It simplifies connectivity and enables key services, underpinned by secure LoRaWAN communication powered by ThingPark Wireless, delivering data to its owners’ cloud applications through a common horizontal infrastructure available to all on equal terms.”

The StadshubbsAlliansen was founded and is operated by Öresundskraft. Growing in 2018 at a rate of a new member every week, the Alliance is made up of either fully or partially municipally owned companies working together both commercially and technically to provide regional Stadshubbs (city Hubs) all using the same ThingPark Wireless platform from Actility, operated by Öresundskraft. The members of StadshubbAlliansen consist of regional fiber network providers with extensive experience of providing digital communication solutions. All own their own fiber networks, which provide key communication links in the City Hubs, and all have broad experience in working with local businesses and private customers whilst also dealing with infrastructure issues and urban development needs.

“In Actility we have a very strong partner, both in technology and in world-leading deployment expertise. Actility has been able to support StadshubbsAlliansen from the earliest days as a start-up and continue as we now are rapidly are growing throughout Sweden. With this well-developed infrastructure in and LoRaWAN™ service the StadshubbsAlliansen and Actility are creating a marketplace to realize the full potential of all digitalization through one technical and one business platform for multiple cities. Together we will build Sweden’s Smartest Cities,” concludes Bo Lindberg.