Telekom Srbija first in region to present its platform for development of IoT services based on LoRa technology
Belgrade, 31 July 2018 – As the top operator in the region and the fiftieth-ranked in the world, Telekom Srbija on Tuesday presented its cutting-edge infrastructure intended for IoT solutions – the LoRa network. The LoRa network provides for connection and mutual communication between a large number of different devices and sensors, and constitutes the basis for the development of IoT ecosystems i.e. digitalization and digital transformation of society as a whole. The promotion ceremony was attended by Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, Telekom Srbija CEO Predrag Ćulibrk, Chairman of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce Marko Čadež, and founder of the Bitgear Company Dejan Dramićanin. The simple remote control of household appliances, remote reading of the parameters of the human body or management of information about free parking space no longer represent a distant future, but the reality that surrounds us.
Telekom Srbija CEO Predrag Ćulibrk said that the LoRa network was one of the pillars of the digitalization process in all walks of life and added: “We at Telekom Srbija are proud of being the first in the region to deploy the IoT network based on the cutting-edge LoRa technology. It is a technology that, through the ecosystem of sensors, provides all preconditions for the creation of diverse business solutions. We are also proud of having created, together with our partners of the Bitgear company, a sensor, one of a kind in the world, whose application resolves the decade-long issue of the Company, thus finally establishing security control over our underground cable infrastructure, one of the key resources for an unhindered operation. I am perfectly confident that Telekom Srbija is prepared to assist everybody - from large systems through small and medium-sized companies to start-up companies, in jointly creating a digital future.”
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić pointed to the strategic importance of the digitalization process for both the citizens and the economy and mentioned, as a positive example of development in this sphere, cooperation between a state-run company, Telekom Srbija, and national innovative companies such as Bitgear. The Prime Minister said she was pleased that at issue was the company which had emerged from the business incubator of the technical faculties of Belgrade University. “It is through cooperation between the state and domestic start-up and innovative companies that we support the development of the local IT industry, obtain developed solutions which are our intellectual property, increase the value of domestic companies, both public and private, while Serbia is becoming recognized as the centre of technologies and innovative solutions and the exporter of knowledge”, Brnabić said. The Prime Minister also called on other companies, primarily public, to identify the problems in business operations and to invite domestic companies, faculties and institutes to work together towards resolving these problems and based on those solutions, to create a product that they would be able to export from Serbia. “The government will continue to back and aid such initiatives”, Brnabić said.
In her address to the media, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said that Telekom Srbija had demonstrated the importance of market-oriented thinking. “Telekom Srbija is one of the rare state-run companies which has opted for cooperation with a domestic company, and this product, which, I believe, will be in global demand, was made in Serbia", Brnabić said in her address.
The Chairman of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Marko Čadež, pointed to the importance of Telekom Srbija’s technological breakthrough for the Serbian economy, and called on companies to familiarize themselves with the possibilities of the LoRa network and use them as a platform for the development of new products and services, digitalization and promotion of business operations.
“The Serbian Chamber of Commerce will, as part of its support for companies’ efforts to transform digitally, actively work towards presenting to its members the advantages of this new and state-of-the-art technology which Serbia was the first to implement in the region. As in the case of Bitgear, we shall continue to encourage partnerships between technologically growing companies and the innovative start-up community, and Telekom Srbija, which will bring to domestic companies from all economic branches, from agribusiness and power supply to industry and service provision, more efficient business solutions and competitive advantages, and lay the basis for a clever growth”, Čadež said.
The attendees were acquainted with part of the practical application of LoRa technology in the domain of property and infrastructure security and protection.
The founder of Bitgear, Dejan Dramićanin, said on the occasion: “We are all too glad that Bitgear is the first user of Telekom Srbija’s LoRa network which, I am confident, will be a fillip to the development of domestic solutions for digital transformation. Our solution innovatively uses cutting-edge worldwide achievements in the telecommunications industry and the production of sensors, and the project that we have presented to you today ranks among the greatest IoT projects in Europe and represents the fruit of domestic expertise. By working on this project, we also acquired a reference for the exports of an original domestic solution, so that our product has already elicited much interest in Europe, South America and Africa. This will be a direct indicator of the influence of the Telekom project on the Serbian economy and from the exports of the Serbian solution the state will generate multiple revenues against profit tax.”
The LoRa network currently covers Belgrade and its wider environs and soon it is to cover the entire territory of Serbia.
