Hurley, United Kingdom – 31 January 2022 – IoT Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global Internet-of-Things (IoT) market, today announced that Ericsson, together with Voi, Europe’s leading micromobility company, and Arkessa, a leading provider of global cellular IoT connectivity and Ericsson’s communication service provider partner, has been selected as winner of the “Smart City Deployment of the Year” award in the 6th annual IoT Breakthrough Awards program.
Voi provides electric scooter sharing in partnership with cities and local communities. The company is present across more than 70 cities in 11 countries. The business is centered around creating networks of shared electric vehicles that are affordable and carbon-neutral to travel around urban areas and aid in an eventual shift away from cars in the city center.
Arkessa provides global IoT connectivity and management to Voi’s e-scooter fleets worldwide, enabling micromobility in urban areas. With global SIMs supplied by Arkessa, Voi is able to easily provision and activate scooters while also managing its fleet of connected scooters – regardless of their locations.
Voi’s connected e-scooters allow for flexible and affordable individual transportation over short distances producing no emissions and almost no noise. Voi is enhancing the rider experience while also enabling digital value creation for a whole ecosystem around e-scooters. Such an ecosystem can include a broad range of actors such as suppliers of scooter components, value-added service providers, and local partnerships with both private and public sectors, including city councils.
Arkessa leverages the Ericsson IoT Accelerator platform to provide managed cellular connectivity services which span the entire lifecycle of the scooter fleet and enables Voi to deploy to multiple countries globally in a seamless fashion, lowering costs.
“As cities continue to grow, technology is playing an increasingly important role in improving quality of life. To combat noise, pollution and congestion, city planners are looking to create sustainable, efficient and comfortable access to cities. The ‘15 Minute City’ concept would enable citizens to access their essential living needs by walking, biking, taking public transport or a shared micromobility service,“ said James Johnson, managing director at IoT Breakthrough. “We want to congratulate Ericsson, Voi and Arkessa for working together to create a micromobility service that has the potential to help cities around the world transform their mobility concepts. Together they are our choice for ‘Smart City Deployment of the Year.’”
Cellular IoT connections are expected to grow nearly – 3 times from 1.9 billion in 2021 to 5.5 billion in 2027, according to Ericsson’s estimations. To date, Voi boasts more than 6 million users and has served close to 45 million rides.
The mission of the IoT Breakthrough Awards program is to recognize the innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the globe in a range of IoT categories, including Industrial and Enterprise IoT, Smart City technology, Connected Home and Home Automation, Connected Car, and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 3,850 nominations from companies all over the world.
“We are grateful to IoT Breakthrough for this award and equally as grateful to our partners and fellow winners: Arkessa and Voi. Realizing smart cities is closer than ever and one key building element is micromobility, powered by high-speed cellular connectivity, that makes city mobility more flexible, affordable and sustainable,” said Åsa Tamsons, Head of Business Area Technologies and New Businesses at Ericsson. ”It has been incredible to come together with Voi and Arkessa as they make use of our IoT Accelerator platform to create the agility needed to scale this project. Global, reliable, and secure connectivity plays a pivotal role in helping new industries grow and contribute to connecting our cities.”
Issued by Gemma Roshier on behalf of Arkessa, part of the Wireless Logic Group. For more information, contact Gemma Roshier on gemma.roshier@wirelesslogic.com
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