Vodafone and Continual join forces on connected car analytics project

12 Oct 2018

Street advert for Vodafone. Image: alexeynovikov/Depositphotos

Vodafone Ireland is working with connected car specialist Continual to explore improvements for its subscribers travelling on roads.

In internet of things (IoT) news this week, Enterprise Ireland’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) initiative doled out approximately €700,000 in funding to 21 companies seeking smart city solutions. The funding will go towards various smart city projects managed by local authorities across Ireland, in areas such as bathing water contamination, smart mobility and freight optimisation. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is particularly interested in embracing an IoT network.

Meanwhile, in the world of connected domestic devices, Facebook has launched a video phone dubbed Portal, which is linked to its Messenger service and also employs Amazon’s Alexa voice command technology.

Read on for more IoT happenings this week.

Vodafone teams up with connected car analytics player

Israeli company Continual specialises in connected car and subscriber mobility analytics, and it revealed earlier this week that it has been collaborating with Vodafone Ireland and Vodafone Goup on a major project.

According to Continual, Vodafone wanted to deploy optimisation solutions using big data and machine learning to improve road experience for its customers. It also aimed to prove the feasibility of accurately controlling the quality of service for connected cars and, eventually, autonomous cars in the 5G age.

The partnership has collated a unique set of predictions relating to the numbers of customers using particular routes in Ireland, as well as a measure of data volumes and call minutes they consume, and the quality of experience metrics.

Max Gasparroni, head of networks at Vodafone Ireland, said: “Collaborating with Continual to exploit cutting-edge technologies such as AI, big data and machine learning has enabled us to take a further step forward on the journey towards 5G and associated compelling use cases.”

Huawei and Standard Chartered team up for IoT banking solutions

According to FinExtra, Standard Chartered and Huawei are joining forces to create an IoT-powered solution that could change how companies communicate with banks around financing and payments.

The solution lets firms and bank systems communicate in real time, triggering payment and financing instructions via APIs. It uses Huawei’s open IoT platform, OceanConnect, which also deploys big data and cloud computing technologies.

Michael Gorriz, group CIO of Standard Chartered, said: “Technology can change the fundamental way we do banking. We found in Huawei a strong partner who shares our passion to transform the way we would like to support our clients, and make banking seamless and effortless for them through the application of cutting-edge internet-of-things technology.”

InfiNet Wireless to unveil spectral efficiency solution

Major fixed wireless broadband player InfiNet Wireless is set to showcase its record-breaking spectral efficiency solution at Gitex Technology Week in Dubai, which will be held from 14 to 18 October.

The new 5GHz point-to-point solution, the Quanta 5, has been built to offer what the company claims is the highest spectral efficiency available in today’s marketplace. It is able to operate in sub-zero temperatures as well as extremely hot conditions, ensuring that the data is transmitted reliably and delivered across large distances.

The Quanta 5 is based on the latest software-defined radio technology and can be used in the transmission of high-resolution video streams, the provision of internet and intranet access, and for backhauling many varieties of traffic.

Street advert for Vodafone. Image: alexeynovikov/Depositphotos

Updated, 3.32pm, 12 October 2018: This article was updated to provide the correct dates for Gitex Technology Week.

Ellen Tannam was a journalist with Silicon Republic, covering all manner of business and tech subjects

editorial@siliconrepublic.com