French IoT specialist Kerlink and Indian company Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS) announced a partnership to promote and deploy LoRaWAN IoT networks globally.
Under the terms of the agreement, Kerlink and TCTS will offer installed and managed networks that include a range of smart-city applications for lighting, parking, building, energy, as well smart agriculture, metering, and safety and security applications.
“Despite the rapid growth of IoT, many companies and cities are still searching for a private IoT network solution that can be customized for their specific goals and deployed and managed easily,” said Madhusudhan Mysore, executive chairman and CEO, Tata Communications Transformation Services. “TCTS and Kerlink will focus on this market and demonstrate – based on extensive telecom experience, multiple IoT use cases in critical applications, and a proven record of deployments around the world – that LoRaWAN technology is the ideal private-network solution for these groups,” he added.
Tata Communications, which is part of Indian holding company Tata Group, and Kerlink have deployed LoRaWAN networks in more than 40 Indian communities and cities, reaching a coverage of 250 million people. The nationwide deployment in India is powered by more than 10,000 Kerlink Wirnet iBTS Compact stations.
“TCTS and Kerlink have joined forces to share this story and to bring turnkey network consulting and smart applications, sensors, connectivity, and operations management to help cities and companies worldwide deploy IoT solutions that leverage LoRaWAN networks’ key capabilities,” said Eric Torres, VP & head of business operations and solution engineering, for TCTS.
TCTS provides business transformation, managed network operations, network outsourcing, and consultancy services to telecommunication companies around the world. In this partnership with Kerlink, the company will provide customers with sensors, integration expertise and the applications needed for its networks. Kerlink will bring Wirnet iBTS stations for low-power/wide-area (LPWA) connectivity. It will also provide its Wanesy Management Center for deploying and operating networks with optimized total cost of ownership (TCO) and increased return on investment (ROI). The company has served customer rollouts of LoRaWAN networks in 69 countries.
Kerlink signs smart farming deal with Sensoterra
In related news, Kerlink and and Sensoterra, a specialist in wireless soil-moisture-sensor solutions, announced a partnership oriented to rural producers. The company said the new solution developed through the partnership would allow customers to reduce their water consumption by up to 30%.
Using Kerlink’s LoRaWAN-based Low Power IoT Reference Design platform to produce a new class of soil-moisture sensors, Sensoterra will launch its new sensors in the U.S., Europe, and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region beginning this year.
“Less than 2% of agricultural land worldwide is equipped for soil-moisture measurement, which presents a very large market for wireless soil-monitoring and a big opportunity to improve water conservation,” said Christine Fraser-Boer, COO of Sensoterra. “Sensoterra is targeting that space, and Kerlink’s LPIoT Reference Design platform significantly lowered R&D costs and shortened time to market for our new moisture sensors. We expect U.S. Federal Communication Commission certification of our new probe this year so that we can offer these sensitive, smart-farming sensors in the U.S. by year-end. Incorporating this platform in our sensors also allows us to quickly follow our U.S. rollout with launches in Europe and APAC.”
