Electric scooter brand Voi has selected UK-based IoT roaming provider Arkessa and Swedish telecoms vendor Ericsson to provide cellular IoT airtime and management to manage its scooter fleets worldwide.
Arkessa uses the Swedish firm’s IoT Accelerator platform for connectivity management and automation; at the same time, Ericsson uses Arkessa to offer global IoT roaming generally via its IoT Accelerator offer. The setup means Voi can remotely provision, activate, and manage scooters around the world, without being required to physically access the SIM or the scooter.
Ericsson re-emphasised that cellular IoT — a term that covers both low-power LTE-M and NB-IoT, and is sometimes used to include traditional cellular 2G-through-5G machine communications — is building a head of steam among enterprises. The firm told Enterprise IoT Insights it is seeing particular pickup in the healthcare, manufacturing, and public safety sectors.
In a statement about the Voi deal, it restated that cellular IoT connections will grow nearly 3.5 times, from 1.7 billion in 2020 to 5.9 billion, in the period to 2026.
Åsa Tamsons, head of business area technologies and new business at Ericsson, said: “Realizing smart cities is closer than ever. Micro mobility solutions powered by high-speed cellular connectivity make city mobility more flexible and sustainable… Global, reliable, and secure connectivity plays a pivotal role in helping new industries grow and contribute to connecting our cities.”
Andrew Orrock, chief executive at Arkessa, added: “Voi is a pioneer of connected micro mobility solutions and is committed to helping cities meet their 2030 climate goals… With more than 50 percent of the world’s population living in cities, Voi’s vision of creating cities for living will change the urban landscape for the better and we are so excited to be a part of it.”
Fredrik Hjelm, chief executive and co-founder at Voi, said: “By leveraging Arkessa’s secure and resilient global network connectivity, Voi can continue to deliver fast, reliable e-scooter services as we expand into new markets and roll out our next-generation vehicles and IoT hardware.”
