Finnish private wireless provider Ukkoverkot, which has won a number of industrial LTE contracts with country-mate Nokia, has rebranded as Edzcom, and set a strategy for international growth, the company has announced.
The company already has 26 operational private LTE networks in the Nordic region, including with the likes of port equipment suppliers Konecranes, Sandvik, Finavia, and Steveco, the Finnish ports of Oulu, Kokkola, and HaminaKotka, Finnish state rail company VR Group, and the Finnish Defense Forces. It claims more private networking contracts in the Nordic region than any other company.
The company operates its private LTE networks in its own 450 MHz and 2.6 GHz frequencies in Finland; it also offers private industrial 5G at 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz. It has dedicated frequencies in Sweden and the Netherlands, as well. It will expand, as Edzcom, into France and the UK via the government releases of private and shared spectrum in both markets.
The rebranding – to a simpler sounding name – is geared towards the company’s expansion into these new markets. Mikko Uusitalo, chief executive at Edzcom, said: “Industrial players are under increasing pressure to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalization to stay competitive. We are technologically years ahead of our competitors, and with our help, our customers can also be ahead of theirs.”
The company is presenting private wireless as a springboard for enterprise resource planning, automation, robotics and real-time remote monitoring in the manufacturing, mining, logistics, oil and gas, and energy segments. Uusitalo said: “Right now, we have an excellent opportunity to take careful steps to expand our operations into new areas. A more international brand helps us access these markets.”
The new brand also reflects the industrial applications and edge technology the company is bundling as part of its offer, it said.
“Industrial production has been significantly enhanced by digital cloud-based solutions. However, for real-time use cases, business-critical data processing must be done near the data collection point, at the edge of the networks, through applying edge computing resources. In order to deliver the required performance, latency and redundancy, we are providing quality, high-performance, private local wireless networks, called edge networks. This has also inspired our new brand,” said Uusitalo.
