As it enters its third year as a publicly traded company, telecommunications provider Actelis Networks is looking to capitalize on the growing demand for smart cities, which often feature hybrid connectivity solutions.
Initially focused on terrestrial wireless services, Actelis saw an opportunity for growth in smart cities, Tuvia Barlev, chairman, co-founder and chief executive at Fremont, Calif.-based Actelis, tells Connectivity Business News in the latest episode of “The Dish” podcast.
“We had taken a calculated risk, because we had some business in the [smart networks] space,” Barlev says. “We already had wins with the federal government in the U.S. and energy and utility companies in Europe.”
Actelis had been helping upgrade highways in the United Kingdom to smart highways and is revamping the traffic system in San Jose, Calif., using its smart network capabilities, Barlev says.
“When you sit in traffic, idle and waiting for the traffic light to change to green so you can move forward and it’s 2 a.m. and there’s no other traffic around there, but the traffic system is not smart enough to know that,” there can be consequences, he says.
Not only does this waste drivers’ time, but as their car engines idle they create pollution.
Smart networks can help solve complex problems, but they don’t necessarily require complex, expensive technologies. Actelis uses a flexible hybrid solution that blends broadband over copper and fiber optics, he says.
Fiber-grade connectivity is still very much in demand, but many locations around the world don’t have fiber in place, and it’s expensive to establish, Barlev tells CBN.
Implementing fiber connectivity can cost tens of thousands to millions of dollars per mile depending on the location, he says.
“We came up with the technology that takes whatever is there [in place of fiber]. And there’s always something — telephone lines, co-ax cables connecting cameras. With military, we even use barbed wire,” he says. “And just by installing our devices on the two ends of a link like that over the wire, we can implement our signal-processing package technology that takes it to fiber performance.”
Actelis closed out 2023 announcing a $300,000 order from an undisclosed North American rail operator and completed private placement deal resulting in gross proceeds of approximately $1.5 million.
Listen as Barlev discusses how smart networks are benefiting cities and the strengths of Actelis’ flexible infrastructure approach to connectivity.
