telent and Actility partner to launch Netzikon, a national LoRaWAN network for the internet of things in Germany, powered by ThingPark

Actility, the industry leader in Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN), and telent, a German network systems and solutions provider, have worked together to begin the roll-out of a nationwide LoRaWAN network in Germany. The network has already been deployed in Stuttgart, and roll-out to other cities continues, with national coverage expected to be complete by 2018

The first application of the Netzikon network is already in operation. In Thuringia, sensors detect when lightning has struck the turbine blades of wind power generators. The data collected by the sensors is communicated through the LoRaWAN network and delivered to an IoT platform monitoring the wind farm, which can alert the wind farm operator, and identify potential damage more quickly, ensuring the safety and reliability of wind power plants.

The network infrastructure, powered by Actility’s ThingPark Wireless IoT solution, allows the efficient implementation of Smart City solutions, Machine-to-Machine connectivity and new digital applications. In Smart City concepts, Netzikon will offer services including remote reading of meters, acquisition of environmental data, street light control, smart parking systems or intelligent and waste management solutions. The company also envisages completely new applications which can only be realized in a cloud-capable IoT platform by combining various techniques and sensor data.

Furthermore, this new technology enables cost effective and efficient applications in the areas of asset and facility management, e.g. better supervision and maintenance of buildings, vehicles, airport facilities or railway infrastructure. The future geolocation functionality of this technology also enables tracking of assets, animals or handicapped people.

“When we set out to build a nationwide LoRaWAN network in Germany, we selected Actility as our strategic partner for building this network because of their great expertise and experience in building LoRaWAN-networks,” says Netzikon CEO Robert Blum. ”We needed a carrier-grade OSS/BSS system, and Actility is the market leader for such IoT BSS/OSS software solutions. Today, Actility’s ThingPark is at the heart of carrier LoRaWAN IoT solutions across Europe, which opens up great possibilities for roaming, enabling a new class of use cases”

“We’re delighted to be working with telent to enable the Netzikon network across Germany,” says Actility CEO Mike Mulica. “Netzikon joins the rapidly growing number of national LoRaWAN networks built on our ThingPark platform, clearly demonstrating how well it meets the needs of carriers for large scale deployments. And becoming part of the global ThingPark network community means that Netzikon’s customers will be able to benefit from access to the whole ThingPark ecosystem for partners, developers and e-commerce.”