Telenet and imec to work together around Internet of Things and Smart Cities

Leuven/Brussels, 5 October 2017 - Telecom operator Telenet and imec, the leading research and innovation hub in the area of nanoelectronics and digital technology are to join forces around Internet of Things and smart cities. This news was announced in the brand-new innovation centre which Telenet opened in Brussels today in the presence of Alexander De Croo, Minister for Telecom and the Digital Agenda. This centre is meant to help stimulate innovation in Belgium around the latest and advanced media and telecommunication technologies. The partnership with IMEC is a concrete example of this.

Innovation has always been part of Telenet’s DNA. Today, in the presence of Minister Alexander De Croo, John Porter, CEO of Telenet, ​ Balan Nair, CTO of Liberty Global, and Rudi Cartuyvels, EVP of imec. Telenet reinforced that drive for innovation with the opening of its very own innovation centre.

5G and Internet of Things: that will be the primary focus of the new innovation centre.

In that connection, Telenet is to enter into a long-term partnership with imec. This partnership will focus on the Internet of Things (IoT), the latest internet revolution where millions of devices will become interconnected.

In the context of the partnership, Telenet will also be involved in imec’s ‘City of Things’ programme, supported by the city of Antwerp and the Flemish region. As part of that programme, an area of Antwerp will be turned into a Smart Zone, a testing ground where businesses, researchers and residents can experiment with smart technologies that should ​ make life in the city more pleasant, efficient and more sustainable. In this Smart Zone data will be measured through a fine network of sensors. These data, for example air quality, (cycling) traffic or energy usage will be available in realtime to everyone involved.

Telenet will deploy its NarrowBand Internet of Things technology (NB-IoT) in the Smart Zone, an internationally standardised technology that efficiently connects devices to the internet.

Telenet makes it clear that for its IoT services it will employ NB-IoT, a new technology that uses licensed spectrum and is developed and supported by the GSMA, a standardisation organisation that represents the interests of more than 800 mobile operators.

‘We are delighted that Telenet has joined as our latest partner in our City of Things and IoT programs. Telenet will not only be deploying its NB-IoT technology in the Antwerp Smart Zone, we will also collaborate on next generation IoT offerings for various innovative markets’, says John Baekelmans, Vice President for Smart Cities at imec.”

“We are evolving ever faster towards a connected society. We at Telenet want to play a pioneering role in this process and thus maintain our position in Belgium as the most innovative telecommunications and entertainment company. Yet we are also convinced that the best innovation emerges from collaborations between different partners. We are therefore delighted that we were able to conclude an agreement with IMEC for a long-term partnership around IoT applications. We look forward to working together with IMEC to help shape the City of Things project in Antwerp, and in our innovation centre to use IMEC’s great expertise in the field of chip testing,” says Dieter Nieuwdorp, SVP Strategy & Corporate Development of Telenet.

About imec- Imec is the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. The combination of our widely acclaimed leadership in microchip technology and profound software and ICT expertise is what makes us unique. By leveraging our world-class infrastructure and local and global ecosystem of partners across a multitude of industries, we create groundbreaking innovation in application domains such as healthcare, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, energy and education.

As a trusted partner for companies, start-ups and universities we bring together close to 3,500 brilliant minds from over 75 nationalities. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and also has distributed R&D groups at a number of Flemish universities, in the Netherlands, Taiwan, USA, China, and offices in India and Japan. In 2016, imec's revenue (P&L) totaled 496 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.

Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.) and imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.) and imec India (Imec India Private Limited), imec Florida (IMEC USA nanoelectronics design center).