ACC Distribution will help develop smart urban systems in Lithuanian cities

Around the world, more and more countries are partnering with private companies to build smart cities. Lithuania is no exception! An Acme Group company, ACC Distribution with Telecentre, KTU, BIPA, WMW, and other organizations, has established a competence centre to help the country’s cities develop smart urban (IoT) systems. The technology platform of this group of companies is the LoRa wireless technology developed by the US company Semtech.

Some areas where IoT solutions will soon be deployed are traffic management, parking, waste management, air pollution monitoring, street lighting, and heat and water metering. They will enable much more efficient management of urban engineering systems, save energy and natural resources, and improve citizens’ quality of life.

“Based on the available resources and competencies, this team is probably the only one that is currently realistically prepared to meet the complex needs of Lithuanian cities for the deployment and support of smart systems,” says Marius Krupoviesas, Head of the IoT Business of ACC Distribution.

LoRa is the abbreviation for long range. It is based on a special radio wave modulation technique that allows signals of a given frequency to be spread over a very long distance with very low energy consumption. LoRa plaster stations have exceptional connectivity – they can receive data from tens of thousands of sensors simultaneously.

“This characteristic makes sensors and detectors operating in the LoRa network and LoRa protocol exceptionally low power consumption, with a battery life of 10 years or more and a radio signal range of 15 km or more. This allows us to offer our customers technologically efficient solutions at a relatively low cost,” says Remigijus Šeris, CEO of Telecentras. He adds that LoRa’s plus points include the unlicensed 868 MHz frequency for data telemetry (no need for SIM cards) and data encryption with an AES-128 key.

These and other features make LoRa one of the world’s most widely deployed IoT solutions. Nearly 90 million devices are operating on LoRa networks in 142 countries worldwide, and more than 500 companies and organizations are members of the international LoRa Alliance.

Despite some lagging behind, experts say Lithuania is creating a productive environment for developing smart city systems. Municipalities in cities, primarily large ones, one by one are moving from developing smart city concepts to testing installations and trials.

As urban needs emerge, technology businesses come together in clusters of competencies ready to meet those needs. An example of such a technology cluster is the LoRa network in Lithuania. It has expertise in wireless network infrastructure, automated systems, smart sensors, and information technology. It also has expertise in specific areas of urban engineering, such as street lighting, transport management, waste management, and pollution monitoring.