With projects and customers in Switzerland, Austria and Germany and employees at three different locations in Germany, the company is well on its way to further growth. The foundation of this success lies in Martinfeld, a district of the municipality of Schimberg. Almost all technologies were first installed and put into test operation here. With four stations now in place, important air and water quality parameters are continuously recorded and evaluated. Parking sensors and GPS trackers are also in use here, most of them equipped with LoRaWAN radio technology.
Radio technology is invisible. Unfortunately, this means the technology and data of the M2M solutions remain hidden from the residents of Schimberg. The residents of Martinfeld can view data on the project website smartinfeld.de , but the immediate benefit is missing. So how can the citizens of this smart village be given real added value? The answer became clear fairly quickly: fast internet for tablets and smartphones via Wi-Fi, and that throughout the whole village. This is all the more important because Martinfeld nestles romantically in the hills, which means that mobile reception throughout the village leaves a lot to be desired. Within two weeks, Alpha-Omega Technology developed a viable concept. This time, instead of the Internet of Things, the focus was on the internet for people. The AOT staff went looking for network hardware and found it at the manufacturer Ubiquiti, whose access points are designed for outdoor use. Ubiquiti also offers powerful software for central management.
After procuring the hardware, a virtual machine in Microsoft's Azure cloud became the control centre for the Wi-Fi in Martinfeld. Several private individuals and companies agreed to make part of the capacity of their DSL connections available for the village-wide Wi-Fi, and off it went. But this would not be Germany if there were not a small legal problem: in the eyes of the law, anyone offering free internet access becomes an internet service provider with all the obligations that entails. This law is currently being revised, however, mainly under pressure from members of the so-called Freifunk movement.
To be on the safe side from the start, Alpha-Omega Technology decided to authenticate users with the help of Facebook. Users authenticate themselves with their Facebook account and can then use the Wi-Fi, free of charge. The system has been in operation since April and provides fast internet in and around Martinfeld with the help of eleven access points. During this time, 550 people have used the system and downloaded around 40 gigabytes of data. Particularly high usage can always be observed at the home matches of SV Martinfeld, as an access point is also installed at the sports ground. Incidentally, Wi-Fi is also an important bridging technology for putting IoT on the agenda of Martinfeld's residents.
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