Telenor Group and Wireless Trondheim
Open IoT lab in Norway
Telenor Group and Wireless
Trondheim are joining forces to open a new IoT powerhouse to boost
innovation, build competencies and promote Norwegian competitiveness.
The IoT ProtoLab will be open to startups, developers and students
looking to rapidly prototype and develop IoT products and services
Opening in early 2018, the IoT ProtoLab will be a centre for IoT
research and innovation, specifically focusing on next generation Low
Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies and applications. It will also
enable the exchange of data, sharing of experiences and collaboration
with ongoing projects at the Telenor-NTNU AI-Lab. The lab was
established as part of Telenor’s initiative to prepare Norway for a digitised future, contribute to national competitiveness, increased innovation and new competencies.
“The people and companies shaping tomorrow’s society are the ones
that are able to utilize and apply data in new ways. Telenor is
committed to help build these capabilities in Norway. The IoT ProtoLab
will be a place for students, entrepreneurs and startups to experiment
and prototype solutions using next-generation IoT technologies,” says
Sigve Brekke, President & CEO of Telenor Group.
The IoT ProtoLab will be located at FAKTRY, the new community for
ambitious startups in hardware-centric disciplines at Sluppen in
Trondheim, which opens in November 2017.
To support the piloting and testing of IoT services in Trondheim,
Wireless Trondheim has enabled a city-wide IoT testbed and connected to
Telenor’s non-commercial offering, Start IoT. This provides access to
IoT devices, a physical LPWA pilot network and a backend system, which
enables prototyping and developing of IoT services at a relatively low
cost. Wireless Trondheim will be responsible for the setup and the daily
operation of the IoT ProtoLab.
“Our mission at Wireless Trondheim is to enable students,
entrepreneurs and startups to experiment and prototype solutions using
next-generation IoT technologies. By coupling our specialist competence
with companies like Telenor, we can create real impact and help make new
smart products and services for the future,” says Thomas Ulleberg,
Manager of Wireless Trondheim.
In addition to its Start IoT offering, Telenor will also provide
mentorship, support internships in the lab and will collaborate with key
partners for student projects and hackathons. The first official IoT
ProtoLab hackathon will be organised at FAKTRY in November by Telenor,
Wireless Trondheim and Pycom. The two day event aims to gather creative
minds of the city’s developer community, startups and students to
identify and solve real-life critical business problems using next
generation IoT technology, supported by experts, network access and
devkits.
Source: Telenor Group media announcement