How IoT can drive city sustainability and innovation

Article written by Georgia Sweeting and originally published on Total Telecom

We sat in on the 5G and Connectivity track at this year’s tech mobility focussed event MOVE in London, hearing from interesting speakers discussing connectivity in electric vehicle market, and diving into smart city and infrastructure issues that better connectivity can help solve

The first speaker of the day was Marc Sauter, Head of internet of things (IoT) product management at Vodafone, who shared his thoughts on how IoT connectivity can play a critical role in driving innovation and sustainability within the market, and how Vodafone’s IoT solutions are benefitting customers sustainably.

We are given the example of Leaksafe, a UK-based company providing water leak detection and prevention systems in both commercial and residential buildings. They work with the property owners and managers to detect leaks and shut off the water immediately if one is found. Not detecting a leak quick enough can cause significant damage to buildings, which the insurance industry paid out nearly a billion pounds for in 2022.

Vodafone partnered with the company to create a Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) leak detection solution, to stop the small leaks more quickly. This means that leaks and their exact location can be determined immediately. Once the device gets wet, it immediately sends a message to Leaksafe’s data platform using the NB-IoT. The owner or property manager gets an alert through text or an app, and can view the issue in real time through it.

There are thousands of use cases for technology like this, which will increase the efficiency of infrastructure within our cities. “With IoT connectivity, you can connect anything, anywhere at any time, securely simply and at scale to transform businesses,” concluded Sauter.

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