US telecommunications company AT&T has partnered with Swedish IT and engineering firm Prevas to create IoT solutions for industrial and healthcare environments.
The three-year deal will see AT&T’s IoT products combined with the industrial design and engineering experience of Prevas.
The joint offerings will be shaped to help customers get their connected products and services to market more quickly. These customers include companies in the automotive, defense, energy, healthcare, engineering and technology sectors.
For over 30 years, Prevas has served these industries with asset management, product development and IT services. With clear benefits to be had from building IoT solutions on top on this, Prevas is looking to develop a business model that integrates IoT throughout.
Prevas Vice President of Product Development Solutions, Bjorn Andersson, said:
“We have a passion for resolving technology challenges. Our customers look to us to help them tackle Industry 4.0 and industrial IoT. It’s a massive opportunity. Alongside AT&T, we’ll fast track our customers to success with innovative, global smart services.”
Via AT&T’s IoT solutions, Prevas customers will be able to access their smart operations and services from nearly anywhere in the world.
AT&T’s Global SIM provides IoT connectivity across 500 carriers and over 200 countries and territories, while the Control Center manages the IoT connectivity and automation of rules and alerts.
The IoT partnership in practice
Prevas specialises in smart medical devices with built-in sensors, for use both in clinics and in the home. These devices monitor patient location, temperature and humidity. Given IoT connectivity, such devices can upload data to the cloud of the specified healthcare provider, aiding diagnosis and research.
In factory settings, Prevas provides smart manufacturing products that enable safer environments and optimise operational efficiency.
In partnering with AT&T, Prevas aims to collect and relay performance data from their systems in near real-time – allowing their customers to get rapid insights and use predictive maintenance, and ultimately maximise operational up-time and efficiency.
The partnership will also give customers the opportunity to work with the AT&T Foundry – a network of innovation centres that collaborates with start-ups, technology providers and enterprises to help them bring ideas to market more quickly.
Commenting on the announcement, AT&T Region President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, John Vladimir Slamecka said:
Our collaboration with Prevas is an example of how we are fueling business transformation with edge-to-edge capabilities.
“For industrial and hi-tech global businesses looking to get their connected products to market quickly with the help of IoT technology and services, we’re the go-to team. Alongside Prevas, we’re offering a fast track, IoT go-to-market strategy.”
Internet of Business says
This isn’t AT&T first foray into smart devices for the healthcare sector. In March 2018 they partnered with Clairvoyant Networks on wearables for patients with cognitive disabilities.
More broadly, AT&T have been ramping up their efforts in the IoT space in recent months, working with Nokia to provide an Internet of Things (IoT) offering to organisations globally.
The development of 5G technologies is crucial to their designs in this area. AT&T has been battling with other telecoms providers to appear at the forefront of innovation in an industry that has been fairly stagnant, in terms of technology differentiators, for several years.
For example, just last month AT&T laid claim to the world’s first millimetre wave mobile 5G browsing session.
For more on smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0, Internet of Manufacturing will be taking place in Dallas, Texas, USA, 4-5 December 2018 and Munich, Germany 5-7 February 2019.
