Built on a Helium Blockchain system, it’s disrupting telcos
French service provider Kerlink, a specialist solving business problems with an Internet of Things (IoT), has invented the concept of Helium hotspots along with its Vietnamese technolo partner VIoT Group.
The French IoT specialist and the Vietnamese pioneer of smart urban and industrial park development in Vietnam have now announced their partnership to rollout Vietnam’s first nationwide LoRaWAN IoT network. They have also unveiled VIoT’s plan to support Helium’s People’s Network.
Smart City pioneer
VIoT introduced IoT smart-city applications in Vietnam in 2018 with a LoRaWAN streetlighting project. Since then it has expanded its offer to as smart metering for utilities, end-to-end air-water-quality monitoring and early flood-incident management systems. It is the company’s lighting-as-a-service (LaaS) and connectivity-as-a-service (CaaS) business-leasing models that Kerlink has made possible through it’s Helium HNT blockchain and cryptocurrency mining in peer-to-peer wireless IoT networks. VIoT will distribute Kerlink Helium-enabled hotspots and deploy its own IoT network at the same time.
Disrupting the telcos
“These deployments enable Vietnamese factories, businesses, cities and consumers to benefit from cost effective, easy-to-deploy vertical wireless,” said Viet Nguyen, founder and CEO of VIoT Group. Helium’s global, decentralised network of hotspots will disrupt traditional telcos’ subscription-based operating models, Nguyen said. “Think AirBnB or Grab for telcos: if I have an empty room, power and internet why would I not use it as a network tower?”
People Network
The VIoT Group works with partners and household owners in strategic locations to roll out Helium’s People Network. “Our goal is to be the first to use this opportunity in Vietnam for corporations and local governments that aim to benefit from the [cheapest] secured blockchain-powered IoT backbone network.”
The company said the initial deployment phase of its LoRaWAN IoT network, including approximately 350 Kerlink gateways, will be completed by the end of May and will cover six Vietnamese cities and municipalities this year.
Second phase
The second phase, which will install approximately 1,400 additional Kerlink gateways, is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 and will cover 10 more cities in 2023. The company will market its nationwide managed IoT network for turnkey systems mixing sensors, connectivity, integration and applications, such as smart lighting and smart metering, in a single open IoT platform.
What is an Helium blockchain?
Helium technology uses the company’s LongFi design combines LoRaWAN’s wireless protocol (which has allegedly 200 times the coverage of the WiFi protocol) with the omniscient Helium blockchain, enabling any LoRaWAN device to transfer data on the Helium network. This connection provides public, long-range and low-power wireless coverage for LoRaWAN-enabled IoT sensors and devices because LongFi’s roaming capabilities support micropayment transactions so customers pay only based on network usage.
Kerlink has many inventions
“Individuals worldwide have used Helium’s network to create more than 642,000 hotspots,” said Rene Arbefeuille, Kerlink’s vice president for Asia Pacific. “The connected hotspots provide cities with miles of low-power network coverage for billions of devices and are paid in Helium’s cryptocurrency, HNT. Kerlink has invented industrial-grade indoor Wirnet iFemtoCell and Wirnet iFemtoCell-evolution systems. It also claims to have carrier-grade outdoor Wirne iStation IoT gateways, which make HNT cryptocurrency mining possible using the LoRaWAN protocol.