DoCoMo’s new offerings include an IoT-driven temperature and humidity-monitoring service for industrial refrigerators and freezers
Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo and its U.S. subsidiary, NTT DoCoMo USA, announced the launch of an IoT-driven temperature and humidity-monitoring service for industrial refrigerators and freezers in the United States.
NTT DoCoMo said that these new solutions are already available for customers in the U.S. market.
Through the new IoT-based solutions, customers can use smartphones or PCs to monitor the temperature and humidity of their equipment, get alerts in the event of abnormalities, receive monthly reports on temperature and humidity trends and change settings based on such reports, the Japanese telco said. The subscription service is available from $99 per month in the United States.
Temperature and humidity data collected at grocery stores and restaurants are available in the cloud in real time for reliable temperature management, including efficient automation of processes such as visual confirmations by employees, and reduced food wastage, NTT DoCoMo said.
NTT DoCoMo developed the service in collaboration with myDevices, an IoT solutions company based in Los Angeles, California that provides IoT technology based on LoRa technology.
“Refrigeration temperature management is an important issue for grocery stores and restaurants, because equipment breakdowns can lead directly to food spoilage. Despite the high demand for industrial refrigerators with remote monitoring functionality, such equipment is expensive and replacement cycles can be long, so many refrigerators without such functionality are operating in the U.S. market,” NTT DoCoMo said in a release.
The Japanese telco said that it will introduce additional IoT solutions in the U.S. market in the future.
The new service has been launched under DoCoMo’s “Globiot” global IoT initiative, which was introduced in early July to provide global connectivity and operational support and consulting to Japanese enterprises that have global IoT operations.
DoCoMo said its global IoT solution “Globiot” is a combination of services that help enterprises identify and use the most advantageous connectivity options suited to their IoT equipment deployments overseas. It will provide global connectivity via local SIM/eSIM (Embedded Subscriber Identity Module) or roaming, as well as advise customers on appropriate business models. It will also provide support with operation and maintenance and advise customers about relevant IoT regulations and necessary certifications overseas, the telco added.
“Japanese enterprises have found it troublesome to arrange Internet connections for automotive and other IoT equipment they need to operate overseas, such as equipment for construction, agriculture and production operations,” DoCoMo said. “In particular, having to deal with varying IoT regulations and authentication procedures in each overseas region has slowed the pace of global expansions for these companies. NTT DoCoMo’s new solution, however, will simplify such tasks to help companies launch global IoT operations faster and for less cost.”
