Rogers Communications Inc. has reorganized its subscription-based Internet of Things (IoT) networking services, and is now augmenting them with offerings for the oil and gas and food industries, the company announced recently.
The new services-level monitoring for the former and farm and food monitoring for the latter – will be delivered by Kitchener, Ontario-based IoT service provider blueRover, and supported by Rogers.
The move is part of a wider push by the company to eventually offer a complete range of IoT services across multiple sectors, including retail and manufacturing, Ignacio Paz, Rogers’ general manager of IoT, told ITWorldCanada.com sister publication ITBusiness.ca.
“Right now only 13 per cent of companies are receiving an IoT solution from a single company,” he said. “Industry trends show that IoT needs to be simplified in order for companies to accommodate disruptive technologies… so we’ve integrated a number of partners and are offering their services as a subscription, so that our customers only have to deal with us.”
Level monitoring allows energy and agricultural companies to measure liquids such as grain, oil, water and waste matter, while farm and food monitoring uses sensor technology to securely track and automate the temperatures of devices such as refrigerators, freezers, deep fryers and ovens.
In addition to its current offerings for the food and energy industries, Rogers provides a range of IoT services for the retail, automotive, and public sectors, Paz said, having offered IoT solutions in one form or another since 2009. It plans to expand those services in the future, and extend its IoT offerings into the manufacturing sector as well.
“There’s a clear need for businesses to better perform in these segments,” Paz said. “In the future we plan to expand our portfolio, to better enable (our customers) to completely overhaul their customer experience, and to improve their productivity, efficiency, and increase their bottom line.”