Category Archives: Foxconn

Actility, Foxconn, Funding, Internet of Things, IoT, News & Analysis, Olivier Hersent, Orange

Orange, Foxconn among LoRa IoT startup Actility backers

IoT partnerships are in full swing this month

IoT partnerships are in full swing this month

A group of tech companies including operators Orange, KPN and Swisscom and manufacturing giant Foxconn have put $25 million into Actility, an IoT startup focused on the LoRaWAN standard, reports Telecoms.com.

With the IoT land grab fully underway there are already calls for standardisation and collaboration as everyone looks to get an early piece of the action. The LoRa Alliance was unveiled at CES at the start of this year to support LoRaWAN low-power WAN technology. Minimising the amount of power required by IoT modules is considered critical if they’re to have the multi-year battery life required for embedded applications.

This $25 million round of funding was led by Ginko Ventures, which is a consortium consisting of the above tech companies and some VC players. The stated aim of the investment is to accelerate the go-to-market strategy for Actility’s ThingPark open standard IoT network solution.

“I decided to create Actility in 2010 based on the intuition that M2M would become much bigger and the need for carrier grade M2M infrastructure,” Actility founder and chief exec Olivier Hersent told Telecoms.com. “In terms of technology we have worked a lot with a technology call LoRa, which is one of the fastest growing alliances, on the LoRaWAN standard.

“ThingPark provides the technology to connect both long range and low power sensors over unlicensed ISM band spectrum, allowing low cost and fast roll-out of IoT networks for a wide range of IoT applications. We are delighted to have secured the backing of such prominent communications industry leaders.”

“Foxconn Group is transforming to be a high technology solution provider, including hardware and software value creation. Through this strategic investment, we will expand our current collaboration with Actility to bring its LoRaWAN technology and IoT Platform and Solutions to Taiwan, China, and the rest of Asia,” said Fang Ming Lu, executive vice president of Foxconn.

“This is a technology that comes at the right time for operators to accelerate the connection of objects,” Jean-Paul de Weck, CEO Swisscom Broadcast. “There is set to be a huge increase in the demand for IoT and we see Actility as a key partner as we expand our activities in this market.”

The feeling among Actility and its investors is that LoRa could well become the default IoT technology worldwide, and that it will only become so if it is open to all players. The commercial applications of IoT at this early stage tend to be more industrial, such as smart metering, remote monitoring and logistics applications. By seeding the market the aim is to prove the commercial viability of such IoT implementations and build momentum.

The announcement coincides with a flood of other IoT collaborations. Vodafone is partnering with EMC to develop an IoT testing platform, while Samsung yesterday announced a partnership and investment in Sigfox, which seems to be competitive with LoRa and already has some commercial networks, with a new one being rolled out by Engie in Belgium. Finally the Weightless SIG, yet another prospective IoT wireless standard, also picked this week to announce the deployment of a Weightless-N Smart City network in London. It seems unlikely that all these announcements are a coincidence and the IoT land grab is definitely gathering intensity.

Asia Pacific, Datacentre, Foxconn, Kaohsiung, NEC, News & Analysis

NEC, Foxconn to partner on cloud services

NEC, Foxconn are partnering to develop and deliver cloud services to enterprise

NEC, Foxconn are partnering to develop and deliver cloud services to enterprise

NEC Corporation and electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group have announced a partnership that will see the two firms jointly develop an infrastructure-as-a-service platform for enterprises.

The deal will see NEC deploy its datacentre operations management software as well as its software-defined networking technology as the foundation of the service, which will be hosted in Foxconn’s Kaohsiung datacentre in Taiwan.

“We are proud to contribute to the commercialization of Foxconn’s datacentres integrated with SDN technology. Virtualized datacentres enable flexible configuration and rapid provisioning of IT resources, bringing significant benefits to datacentre operators and users alike,” said Takayuki Morita, executive vice president, NEC Corporation.

“NEC is a market leader in the SDN field, with an installation record that includes hundreds of systems for customers worldwide. Utilizing our extensive experience and expertise, we are committed to providing support for the smooth operation of Foxconn’s datacentres in Taiwan, while seeking to broaden our collaboration in order to promote the global expansion of Foxconn’s datacentre business,” Morita said.

NEC will also be providing a direct channel to potential enterprise clients, which may give the joint initiative a boost in the region; Foxconn doesn’t really have a direct relationship with enterprises.

Ed Wu, corporate executive vice president, Foxconn, said: “Information processing technology is a cornerstone in Foxconn’s sustainable business strategy and we are pleased to be working with an industry-leading company like NEC to boost our capabilities in datacentre solutions and to augment our comprehensive suite of information and communications technology solutions.”

“We are committed to investing in the development of high-quality, innovative products and services that meet the needs of our customers and consumers, enabling them to tap the immense opportunities in the Big Data era,” he said.