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Technology will transform lives

Over the past few years, companies, cities and countries have moved to digitise all that they do, driving positive results in numerous ways. Yet across the world, many people still face a number of difficulties from climate change and endemic poverty, to health and nutritional care. While these big issues might seem insurmountable, technology can play a critical role in addressing many of these challenges, while creating a host of opportunities.

One important catalyst for change is IoT, which, although in its early stages of adoption, is already having a huge impact on people around the world. Network deployment, power, reliability and durability are base level infrastructure requirements that can change lives and it is here that three companies have teamed up to solve a simple but essential problem.

Sunshine for change

Globally, there are over 1 billion people without access to electricity, over 2 billion without access to formal banking and over 3 billion without access to the internet.

Veriown Global is a start-up business with the mission of creating innovative and disruptive solutions that have a life-changing impact to those across the world, with limited or no access to electricity, connectivity, quality healthcare or education.

Using the innovation of IoT, Chicago-based Veriown have partnered with one of the UK’s largest mobile providers and UK-based BSS-as-a-Service provider MDS Global. By combining solar power with internet connectivity, Veriown is able to deliver services that provide a monumental impact to the quality of life experienced by last-mile rural consumers.

Veriown solar panels

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MDS Global and Veriown diagram
MDS Global's IoT Revenue Share (Monetisation) Model

Partnering for empowerment

To achieve this proposition, Veriown have partnered with specific third party suppliers to deliver the components. A British Tier one mobile operator will be utilised for the internet access. Veriown will determine which components a customer can access based on the proposition they sign up to.  Veriown will operate a revenue sharing model with the Tier one operator, MDS Global, local deployment partners and local content partners.

MDS Global’s IoTMonetised solution will be utilised to calculate the revenue share to each partner, which will incorporate reconciliation of data from the suppliers. Veriown will also utilise IoTMonetised to view each customer’s transactions, managing their balance, propositions and payments, enabling greater visibility and offering the ability to tailor packages to suit customer demand.

“Collaborating with network infrastructure operators and best-of-breed software providers enables us to provide life-changing solutions to communities. We can now connect off-grid rural consumers anywhere in the world, using locally-relevant tariffs and distribution partners, whilst accurately calculating important revenue share.”

David Shoup, Chief Technology Officer, Veriown.

CONNECT device
Veriown's CONNECT device, which will provide access to clean energy, internet, media, education and commerce.

Connecting the unconnected

Veriown provide a single device known as CONNECT, that acts as a clean energy, internet, media, education and commerce hub. There is an integrated SIM and tablet within the CHS device which provides access to online education, entertainment and commerce to customers in remote end-user locations.

Using this infrastructure Veriown are launching a number of free and add-on services that will provide consumers with:

  • Solar energy for charging and lighting capabilities
  • Access to news, weather and educational content
  • Access to an online catalogue of streaming radio and video content

A customer will be able to purchase these additional service propositions as a ‘one-off’, or if they have sufficient balance, have the proposition automatically renew at the end of each period (e.g. every 7 or 30 days). This will be determined by the customer’s proposition type.

Why do we need IoT monetisation?

Consumers and businesses from all sectors and industries are choosing to pay for IoT applications based on the value that they deliver. This value is measured through defined outcomes, usage and/or subscriptions. Examples include pay-per-mile insurance, pay-per-event healthcare and in this case, pay-per-week smart-lighting or streaming content. Commercial influences such as usage terms, commitment contracts, and bundles for discounting, drive further sophistication in these business models.

Many IoT applications are delivered using an ecosystem of partner applications, services, devices and connectivity, which require partner management and settlement – continuous money in, continuous settlement out. To ensure operations are accurate and profitable, IoT businesses need a solid, yet agile monetisation platform.

Veriown image

“For an IoT model to be both feasible and sustainable, IoT businesses are demanding new approaches to monetisation. Our partnership with Veriown demonstrates the major benefit of enabling a wide ecosystem of services enablers, component manufacturers, system integrators and operational partners, to come together and share value from a range of business models that tap into the phenomena that is IoT.”

“It is with great pleasure that we are not only facilitating multi-company IoT collaborations, but also contributing to a project that has major benefits for the underprivileged across the globe. I hope it will be the start of many projects which empower people.”

Gary Bunney, MDS Global.

IoTMonetised sets the standard for IoT revenue share

IoTMonetised is an agile IoT monetisation solution that is delivered as-a-service via a cloud platform. It is ideally suited to IoT enterprises, like Veriown, that are looking for a solution to manage the monetisation, settlement and assurance of service revenues as they adopt IoT technologies and practices. Complex IoT billing and settlement over customer and partner lifetimes is a new and challenging discipline, but the cloud-based platform and service is available on demand to manage this critical element of business.

Veriown image

This case study also appeared in IoT Now. Read it here.