Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

Smart transport networks

Smart transport networks offer significant benefits to passengers, operators and local authorities, enabling urban services to become more efficient, effective and safe. Cities from London to Singapore are already building them. Madrid is leading the way, with a central control room that receives and integrates data from 40 urban control rooms. They cover more than 100 bus routes, 300 railway lines and 200,000 cameras, delivering end-to-end surveillance and security solutions.

Many experienced providers offer end-to-end solutions to the transport industry, involving 4G routers and cameras. Trams, buses and trains are tracked, and arrival times accurately estimated and advertised, factoring in potential delays. These devices need 4G data SIMs, often with fixed IPs or delivered via a secure private APN. On average, there are seven SIMs per bus for logging into cameras to download relevant footage, Wi-Fi, secure card payments, passenger trackers, applications for tracking hours worked, petrol levels and miles travelled.

Challenges

Service providers face some challenges with 4G. First, some networks are stronger than others in specific locations, requiring partnerships with multiple network providers. Second, they have no way to track data usage, and if devices use more than their allocated monthly allowance, they incur high data overage charges. Third, they need a secure channel for transmitting financial data.

Jola’s solution

We provide cost-effective multinetwork SIMs that work on up to four networks in the UK and all major networks across Europe. We also provide Mobile Manager, an online ordering and management portal that tracks data usage and allows resellers to set up usage alerts and back-date bolt-ons. Data pools allow data to be shared across multiple SIMs, and buffer pools negate high data overage charges completely. Private APN networks offer increased levels of security, allowing encrypted data to travel across a private mobile network.

To find out more, request our Partner Pack.