Colombia. Colombia has the first Internet of Things Laboratory, IoT, for entrepreneurs, created by Telefónica Movistar and Wayra -its open innovation hub- in alliance with CEmprende, the campus for the development of entrepreneurship and innovation in Latin America, iNNpulsa and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.
"With the opening of this first laboratory, we ratify the commitment of the National Government to promote greater growth of our economy through entrepreneurship and innovation. That is why from the Ministry, and with the leadership of iNNpulsa, our challenge is to generate competitive conditions to enhance this project led by Telefónica Movistar and Wayra. It will be a great alliance to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem," said the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, José Manuel Restrepo.
The objective of this space is to provide the different actors of the Colombian entrepreneurial ecosystem with a favorable environment to develop applications and tools based on IoT technology and that can be tested on an exclusive network.
"Telefónica Movistar has the genuine purpose that the benefit of the new digital era reach all people, and that is why today we inaugurate this space that seeks to meet the needs of companies and entrepreneurs. We want to transform society through technology and close the gap in digital talent that still persists in Colombia, offering a state-of-the-art network, the first of its kind in the country. It is for us a pride, but at the same time a deep commitment to the ecosystem of entrepreneurs in the country. We are available with our human talent to train hundreds of dreamers," said the CEO of Telefónica Movistar Colombia, Fabián Hernández.
Between Wayra and CEmprende, 20 ventures based on the Internet of Things have been identified that, from now on, will be able to schedule their appointment and enjoy specialized accompaniment by Telefónica Movistar to test Raspberry with a Movistar data SIM in RAN + HWAct equipment and networks, AWS 15MHz, 850MHz 5MHz, 1900MHz 5MHz and UBBP.
During the presentation of the IoT Laboratory, Espacios Digitales, a Wayra enterprise, made the live demonstration of intelligent lockers which through this exclusive network manage to have greater coverage in basements and buildings and lower data consumption because they travel without overhead, that is, they are sent directly without anything that generates an additional weight and makes them slower. For its part, Dashfleet presented the benefits of IoT in the mass transport system in western Medellín, evidencing the improvements in time, efficiency and control of vehicles.
As the open innovation arm and one of Telefónica Movistar's corporate investment funds globally, Wayra has more than 400 active startups in the world, of which 21 are part of Wayra Colombia's portfolio, and eight of them are working with Telefónica Colombia. The investment in seed capital that Wayra has made in the country is more than 2 million dollars, and its startups have obtained resources for more than 20 million dollars of investment from third parties.
What does the IoT lab offer?
The laboratory will be attended by the different actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Wayra and CEmprende to which these technologies apply within their line of business. The operating environment of LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) connectivity will be recreated there, with the following components: a node enabled with Narrow Band-IoT/LTE, SIM Cards with NB-IoT/LTE-M profile, chipset that support LTE technology for IoT, communications modules that will allow interactions through NB-IoT/LTE-M, software and hardware development kit based on NB-IoT/LTE-M and a workspace for developers and entrepreneurs.
Additionally, training spaces will be created for entrepreneurs where they can advance in issues of development of IoT solutions, they will have training material for interactions with the devices arranged there and the support of trained personnel. This space is a toolbox for entrepreneurs to appropriate IoT technology and innovate and experiment with it, in addition to developing, deepening or scaling their Solutions based on the Internet of Things on the LTE-M or NB network.
