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How can the Internet of Things help me?

Efficiency, precision and data form the core of modern business, from startups to the largest corporations. The Internet of Things is a tool that helps collect data and measure almost anything. Although the term may seem complicated, from a business perspective it is in fact very simple. 

Let’s have a look at practical examples of what you can measure and monitor using the Internet of Things. For example, it allows remote energy consumption readings, including in hard-to-reach places and areas where meter reading would be too costly using the current procedures. Do you want to monitor information from water, gas or electricity meters with minimum delay, including from meters located in shafts or on high poles that are difficult to access? And how about going into greater detail and monitoring information about the electricity offtake of each socket in a house? And would you also like to monitor the temperature in different places in a flat or house?

You can also measure the handling of sensitive goods during transportation. You can monitor the temperature of every drug package on the way to the patient and the humidity inside the package. If you manufacture fragile products, you may find it useful to know about vibrations that the products were exposed to during transportation. Or do you operate vending machines and would like to have information about out-of-stock goods in individual machines? With the help of the Internet of Things, you can have such information automatically within minutes.

Everyone who is interested in Smart Cities may find it useful to be able to monitor parking places anywhere in a city. But you can also monitor and control streetlamps and monitor the level of noise and air pollution. And how about the possibility of monitoring the fullness of garbage cans and have waste removed only when it is really necessary?

The Internet of Things makes all this possible, with nearly zero maintenance and very low acquisition and operating costs.

The core of the entire Internet of Things is a special data network, SIGFOX, which is now available in the Czech Republic and is operated by T-Mobile in cooperation with SimpleCell. The network’s transmitters cover a very wide area: during the pilot operation, a message was successfully sent from Mount Sněžka to a transmitter located in Prague, among other things. Thanks to the qualities of this network, devices that are connected to it are able to operate for years and, in some cases, decades on a single battery.

One more thing is very important: sensors that connect to the Internet of Things are cheap. And if you need a sensor that is not included in the standard portfolio, there’s no need to panic. The development and production of such sensors is not difficult; in fact, it is easy and a number of companies and skilled programmers can do it. Moreover, thanks to the broad range of SIGFOX modules, existing solutions can be equipped with this functionality and, in some cases, firmware adjustment without any intervention in the hardware is sufficient.

How you use the Internet of Things to benefit your business is only up to you. We wish you good luck and many great ideas! 

Author: David Týr, manažer inovací, T-Mobile Czech Republic