Actility announces development of LoRa IoT ‘City Hub’ in Sweden

Low-power WAN specialist Actility has announced it’s working with Swedish fibre network operator Öresundskraft to develop a commercially neutral IoT connectivity platform.

The Open City Hub model involves the creation of an open access, commercially neutral network available to all companies or consumers in a given municipality. In this case the lucky recipient of a LoRa-powered IoT network will be Helsingborg, which looks set to be the first product of the StadshubbsAlliansen (City Hub Alliance) in Sweden.

“A Stadshubb is a regional LoRaWAN with an open and neutral wholesale business model for connectivity, which enables anyone who needs to communicate with LoRa sensors to do so easily, without having to build or operate their own infrastructure,” said Öresundskraft’s Bo Lindberg. “This significantly 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,” said 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.”

This looks like a good win for Actility, not just for the work itself but as a case study of its approach to IoT connectivity platforms. The Swedes are famously good at collaborating over projects considered to be for the greater good so it’s hard to imagine a better place to try this sort of open wholesale model out.