Asia Pacific Telecom launches “IoT by Gt Smart Life” multi-network platform for the Smart Island of Taiwan, powered by Actility ThingPark

Working with local industry to build hundreds of millions of devices, and offering a free LoRa network to an alliance of partners to accelerate innovation in Taiwan.

Taipei, 9th August 2016: Asia Pacific Telecom today announces the launch of Taiwan’s first IoT dual-network multi-platform, named “IoT by Gt Smart Life,” after more than two years of research and development. Since the launch of Gt 4g, Asia-Pacific Telecom (APT) has been evolving into a non-traditional telecommunications company, with a commitment to the development of Smart Life and an IoT platform to build Taiwan into a Smart Island.

Local and international heavyweights have worked together to deliver this IoT collaboration. Within the IoT by Gt Smart Life platform, Foxconn Technology Group provides the hardware, FH-Net deploys the LoRa network, and APT is responsible for the vital domain of application development and service delivery. Key partners include domestic and overseas manufacturers, such as Actility, IBM, Semtech, Cisco, Advantech and Shin Kong Security, spanning the midstream and downstream industries of wafers, platforms and terminals. This vertical integration completes the IoT ecosystem, and APT looks forward to welcoming even more production partners and participation of academics. Those who become a ‘Certified IoT by Gt Smart Life Partner’ are entitled to free use of the LoRa network, implementing a shared economy.

LoRaWAN has advantages in range, time, coverage, and price. Hundreds of millions of networked devices to be built by 2020

APT has broken with telecommunications tradition in building Taiwan’s first IOT dual network, using the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) communications protocol in combination with the APT 4G LTE network, to support a wide variety of applications across a range of industries. APT is the first to market with a network of the scale required to meet local demand for IoT solutions. APT has already rolled out 500 LoRaWAN hotspots, supporting Taiwan’s first IoT dual network for Greater Taipei and Taoyuan. Responding to service requirements for solutions covering the entire island, a solid foundation will be laid for Taiwan to develop fully into a “Smart Island” by the end of the year. It is also expected that by 2020, IoT Ecosystem partners in Taiwan will have delivered hundreds of millions of networked devices which will allow Taiwan to become the exemplary IoT nation, and along with coalition partners, expand into overseas markets.

LoRaWAN is the open standard solution, and is the most widely used low-power consumption long-range WAN protocol.

LoRaWAN is a global IoT success story. Almost 400 institutions or companies, with over 20 telecom providers, are member of the LoRa ™ Alliance, which was established thanks to the optimism of companies regarding business opportunities in the Smart City and the Smart Factory. Founded by Actility, Cisco, IBM, Semtech, Microchip and other technology leaders in early 2015, the LoRa™ Alliance is an open, non-profit organization committed to the implementation of LoRaWAN as a long-range, low-cost and low-power consumption wide-area networking technology for IoT. LoRa Alliance members include multinational telecommunications companies, equipment manufacturers, system integrators, sensor manufacturers and semiconductor industry and entrepreneurs around the world. Alliance members include Actility, Cisco, Eolane, IBM, Kerlink, IMST, MultiTech, Sagemcom, Semtech, Bouygues, KPN, SingTel, Proximus, Swisscom, FastNet and Microchip. The LoRa Alliance brings together many world-class companies to share knowledge and experience and together promote LoRaWAN network protocols and accelerate the global success of LoRaWAN.

Taiwan’s first IoT dual-network multi-platform — developers accelerate application innovation

The IoT by Gt dual-network platform supports both networks of LoRa hotspots and the existing 4G LTE, integrating partners such Cisco, Jasper, Actility, and IBM Bluemix into this dual-network multi-platform to build an open and shared IoT development environment. It provides developers with the most complete IoT solution and accelerates application innovation. Actility’s ThingPark IoT solution is at the heart of this innovative dual-network platform. Actility is a technology innovator and industry leader in LPWA (Low Power WAN). Actility’s ThingPark™ is the next generation standards-compliant IoT platform. Olivier Hersent, founder and CTO of Actility, comments: “Actility is very proud to be working with FH-Net and APT to deliver this large-scale, fully-operational LPWA roll-out, which immediately catapults Taipei to the forefront of the world’s leading IoT cities. We see this as a great opportunity to be at the heart of one of the most exciting markets in IoT, which is preparing for explosive growth, and we look forward to continuing to work with APT to deploy new services and capabilities within the platform.”

IoT dual-network will enable a Smart Ecosystem: ‘Smart City’ and ‘Tracking Service’ are already online

The IoT by Gt platform solution has already launched the first demonstration applications, “Smart City” and “Tracking Service”.

Smart City Application: Using LoRa terminal devices, Energy Management Systems and Yung Loong Engineering will launch Smart Water/Electricity/Gas Meters with instant meter reading, history and anomaly warnings. In addition, the Security Institute of Science and Technology has launched a ‘Smart Water Level Gauge’, the perfect example of how LoRaWAN can be applied to the ultimate Smart City. The smart water level gauge integrates data transmission from water level gauge, solar charging and a cloud data platform, thus dramatically reducing the construction of monitoring stations and maintenance and operation costs. This can be used to monitor hydrology, water drainage and waterlogging. The ‘Smart City Flood Warning System’ is integrated into the IoT hydrological monitoring system.

‘Tracking Service’: This uses LoRa IoT to help track vehicles, goods and pets to send instant location and provide “geo-fenced” alerts. Examples include the ‘LoRa Multipurpose Tracker’, designed and developed by Foxconn Technology Group. This weighs only 21 grams and combines GPS and Wifi. It is available for both indoor and outdoor positioning; it also combines a customized LBS (Location Based System) for real-time tracking. Added to this are multiple functions such as Path History, Electronic Fence, and Tracking Management, combining LoRa and tracking services.

In addition to the demonstrated ‘Smart City Applications’ and ‘Tracking Service‘, IoT by Gt can also be extended to Internet of Vehicles (IoV), Smart Factories, Smart Agriculture, Smart Home and other diverse domains. IoT by Gt will support developers implementing innovative applications and create industry development opportunities for the new IoT generation in Taiwan.