Swedish Internet of Things (IoT) technologies pioneer FältCom has signed a prestigious contract with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) comprising an IoT upgrade of 475 traffic lights across the city, in order to create a better and safer traffic flow at busy intersections.
FältCom, which is a leading player in the rapidly growing market for ‘connected’ public transport, was acquired by Swedish telecommunications group Telia Company in February 2017. NYCDOT has now chosen FältCom to deploy its MIIPS IoT platform to upgrade a total of 475 traffic lights in the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, as the first phase of a project to improve traffic flow at key intersections across the city.
It is estimated that there are over 13,000 traffic lights in New York City. This is FältCom’s third project together with NYCDOT, which last year chose the MIIPS platform to launch a real-time passenger information (RTPI) program, connecting buses to New York’s 16,000 bus stops via mobile apps.
FältCom sells and develops systems with reliable and secure communications services in the machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and IoT marketplace. The company was established in Umeå in 1998 and was, even by global standards, early in the IoT/M2M arena, with its first cloud-based systems implemented by 2002.
Today, the company has over 160,000 installed units, 30,000 of which consist of the open platform MIIPS units. The FältCom platform is extensively used in Sweden’s transportation network, where it is fitted to all the country’s weather stations and speed cameras and half of the country’s buses. The MIIPS units also regulates traffic lights in many Swedish cities, including a major network in Malmö. The platform is also deployed in thousands of Volvo’s test vehicles that are driven for long periods of time in a variety of locations around the world.
FältCom’s technology has been approved for connection to New York’s public safety network, NYCWiN (NYC Wireless Network), which is also used by the police, fire and emergency services, with the aim of improving real-time availability of bus services.
The solar-powered travel signs are equipped with FältCom’s Linux open platform MIIPS units via the NYC network, which receives real-time information from a server connected to the city’s buses’ GPS units.
The MIIPS C Units are equipped for all mobile standards such as 2G, 3G, 4G and Ethernet, and are also completely operator-independent. FältCom will continue to develop the system together with the NYCDOT, and will use its NYCWiN connection for the traffic signals upgrade.
“The transaction strengthens our position and ambition to become a leading global provider of smart cities and smart public transport. It is also a good base for further expansion in the field of smart cities and smart transportation and logistics,” noted Tobias Andersson (left), global sales director at FältCom.
“We are striving to become the ‘preferred platform’ for smart public transportation in New York City. The project naturally also opens up for business with other traffic authorities across North America.”
