Actility announces partnership with Belgian telecom operator Proximus for nationwide IoT deployment in Belgium & Luxembourg

Brussels, Belgium, 16 October 2015: Actility, industry leader in Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks, proudly announces its collaboration with Belgium’s largest telecom operator Proximus for the roll-out of a nationwide Internet of Things (IoT) network in Belgium and Luxembourg. Proximus has selected Actility to roll out a LoRa (Long Range) network based on Actility’s ThingPark Wireless solution. It is the first time a LoRa network is rolled out on this big a scale. The new IoT network will trigger a wave of innovation in both countries, opening up new business models and allowing for processes to run more efficiently.

As part of the partnership between the two parties, Proximus has deployed the LoRa network in the ten major urban and logistic areas in Belgium as well as in the city of Luxembourg. This deployment includes the installation of LoRa base stations and the setup of the central network controllers and management platforms. Up to now, the LoRa technology has been used in asset tracking and facility management use cases and several other applications are being developed. The LoRa network will be rolled out in the whole of Belgium and Luxembourg in 2016.

“Actility is proud to cooperate with Proximus to develop one of the first networks worldwide for IoT, based on the LoRa technology. This will boost innovation and the digital economy in the region”, said Pierre Verbruggen, Managing Director Benelux at Actility.

Proximus relies on Actility’s capabilities to deliver a SaaS (Software as a Service) deployment which enables a fast roll-out centralized through the ThingPark Wireless platform. “We are very excited to be collaborating with Actility, which allows us to use the LoRa technology to enable a quick, safe and a low energy consuming network. The ThingPark Wireless platform allows us and our customers to easily set up, manage and monitor the IoT Network and Devices” said Geert Standaert, Chief Technology Officer at Proximus.

Proximus leads a series of upcoming worldwide LoRa based LPWA deployments that will be realized by other countries in Europe and overseas in the next coming months.

Practical use cases

The current LoRa deployments are being used for several use cases. One of them involves asset tracking luggage carts at Zaventem Airport. Sensors which are implemented on these carts can display their location in order to increase efficiency. Furthermore, a smart parking solution will be shortly launched in order to guide car drivers via the Smart Parking app to the nearest empty parking space. Other examples of operational use cases are fridge monitoring and maintenance of offices. 

Leveraging the ThingPark platform for Internet of Things services

The ThingPark Wireless solution requires a low-cost antenna to connect sensors in a 2-5 km radius for dense cities or in a 15 km radius for countryside applications. The ThingPark Wireless solution has been integrated to Proximus’ Application Enablement platform M2M Factory.