IoT companies team up to create an Alliance against COVID-19

BOSTON/MINSK, USA/Belarus, 2020-Apr-28 — /EPR Network/ — IoT and telematics companies announce creating non-profit anti-COVID-19 IoT Alliance. The main goal of the Alliance is to join the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and to help change the situation.

Led by Gurtam’s flespi team, Alliance members are joining efforts to help national governments, municipalities, NGOs, and other enthusiastic groups across the globe harness the spread of the coronavirus by developing bundled (hardware + connectivity + software) technology solutions aimed at monitoring and regulating the movement or location of people, assets, and vehicles, controlling the state of protected areas and objects, ensuring public safety, and more.

 

The key emphasis of the alliance is that all members provide their products and services for free or at cost. Essentially, any IoT company can participate on a non-commercial basis. It is an opportunity for all members to contribute to the noble fight against the global pandemic for the sake of doing the right thing for humanity. A set of expectations from alliance members to meet is published here: https://flespi.com/covid19-iot-alliance#expectations

How the Alliance can help to fight COVID-19

 

The members of the Alliance are ready to give their expertise and resources (servers, GPS equipment, SIM cards, etc.) to craft the following anti-crisis solutions in the shortest term:

 

• Personal tracking

controlling distance from home, controlling the distance between people, tracking infected individuals, etc.

 

• Public transport monitoring

passenger counters, passenger identification, route control, etc.

 

• Freight transportation monitoring

transit vehicles control, cargo monitoring

 

• Critical assets monitoring

anti-theft measures for temporarily abandoned places

 

• Monitoring in healthcare

keeping an eye on important appliances, tracking deliveries of highly demanded medicine or products, locating doctors and nurses, etc.

 

The first two member companies to join Gurtam’s flespi team were Pod Group – Spain-based IoT connectivity provider, and JIMI IoT – China-based maker of IoT and telematics hardware. 

 

Here is what their representatives had to say about their involvement in the initiative:

 

“At Pod we are proud to commit to an initiative such as the COVID-19 IoT alliance in order to facilitate the use of technology to reduce the impact of the pandemic and to lay the foundation for new ways of working. Innovation is particularly important during challenging times and by working with a group of partners such as Gurtam’s flespi team and the others we aim to help provide the infrastructure required for IoT builders who are creatively solving problems directly related to the Covid-19 response. IoT has a large part to play in overcoming the current crisis and in limiting and controlling the detrimental effects of similar ones moving forward. As a community it is essential that we come together to encourage and enable this.”, said Sam Colley, CEO of Pod Group. 

 

“JIMI IoT is honored to be part of Covid-19 IoT Alliance with our partner flespi and other like-minded technology companies. It is time for us to fight together and stay united during these challenging times. While these days one can observe ubiquitous focus on medical “weapons”, we are dedicated to using technology to help our world win this battle in a more efficient and quicker way. For any solutions related to location awareness using wireless communication, you may count on us.”, said Jones Peng, CMO of Shenzhen Jimi IoT Co., Ltd.

 

At this time three more IoT companies have joined the Alliance: Eelink, Escort, and Teltonika. Several other companies are strongly considering it as well.

 

“We are very excited about this initiative and the amount of interest and requests it has already generated from those interested in participating and contributing to worthy causes around COVID-19 pandemic. The ultimate goal, however, is not to generate marketing buzz, but to get involved and deliver meaningful projects that could help humanity to overcome this great challenge. The crisis will continue taking a huge toll on the global economy and public health. Anything Gurtam, along with Pod Group, Eelink, Concox/Jimi, Escort, Teltonika and future alliance members, can do to relieve the pain and accelerate the recovery, we will”, said Sergei Leuchanka, VP of Business Development at Gurtam (founder of the Alliance). 

 

The Alliance is open for new members who want to join the battle against coronavirus. More details: https://flespi.com/covid19-iot-alliance