Mobitel paves the way for IoT at Sri Lanka’s first ever industry forum and hackathon on NB-IoT

Mobitel NB-IoT Hackathon participant teams

Mobitel, The National Mobile Service Provider, recently hosted Sri Lanka’s first ever industry Forum on NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) technology at Trace Expert City in Colombo to drive innovation in the IoT sector in collaboration with the industry.

Held on the 23rd of March, this forum was set to connect the innovators and decision makers in the industry and government with global industry experts to share knowledge, experience and create inspiration. The forum was instrumental in guiding the young innovators to showcase their talents at Sri Lanka’s first open overnight hackathon which commenced at 5.00pm on the same day and went on till the evening of the following day. The Mobitel NB-IoT Forum brought speakers from around the world who are spearheading programs and projects in integrating NB-IoT into consumer’s lives at a global scale. The Keynote Address was given by Bruno Vilares - Senior Marketing Manager - Core Network Business Unit, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., who provided an overview of the NB-IoT technology within the Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) market, and new and emerging trends that would impact stakeholders globally. 

Among the other speakers at the Mobitel NB-IoT Forum were Jaikishan Rajaraman – Vice President and Global Head of Technology, GSMA who spoke on getting the most of Mobile IoT technologies and Francis Zhu - Director, Strategic Marketing, ZTE Corporation who spoke on the Future Outlook of IoT and Sachin Kalantri - Director Product Marketing, Qualcomm India and SAARC who covered the Integrated Development of NB-IoT Chips, Modules and Devices and their future in his presentation, Dr. Dilum Bandara, Senior Lecturer, University of Moratuwa, Computer Science & Engineering Department and Director, Engineering Research Unit, University of Moratuwa on Big Data And Security in IOT and Eugene Lee, Senior Technical Sales Manager, Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co on NB-IoT Network & Ecosystems. 

Winning team of the hackathon, SAS Ninja Labs Team receiving prize from (left to right) Mr. Rasantha Hettithanthrige, Senior General Manager - Engineering & Operations – Mobitel; Mr. P.G. Kumarasinghe Sirisena – Chairman, Sri Lanka Telecom & Mobitel; Prof. Lalith P. Samarakoon, Secretary General & Chief Economist – National Economic Council of Sri Lanka.

Dr Shamil Appathurai, Senior Manager - Network Strategy & Transformation of Mobitel spoke on Mobitel's Engagement and Roadmap for NB-IoT technology while Akalanka De Silva, Assistant Manager - Product Service Innovation of Mobitel conducted a session to provide the attendee with hands on experience to Integrate Devices and Develop Applications quickly with NB-IoT.

The second day of the 2-day focus on NB-IoT was a much anticipated Hackathon organized by Mobitel to challenge and inspire Sri Lankan ‘techies’ to rise up to the many opportunities of IoT by creating solutions using mobile IoT technology. The overnight hackathon was a complete success and showcased some of the Sri Lanka’s best engineering minds at work. The winning team was ‘SAS Ninja Labs’ Team who created an Uber-Style Parking Spotymizer, and won the Grand Prize of Rs. 150,000. The first runner up was ‘The Team Name’ who created crowd-sourced IoT charging outlets for electric vehicles, while the second runner up in the Hackathon, Team ‘Phastem’ created an IoT based Cabinet System for backpackers in Sri Lanka.

Panel Discussion on the Need of a reliable IoT network for emerging and frontier markets with (from left) Dr. Narendra De Silva Head of Engineering at LECO (Pvt) Ltd, Major General Renuka Rowel Director General Research & development, Sri Lanka Army, Jaikishan Rajaraman Vice-President and Global Head of Technology, GSMA, Bruno Vilares Senior Marketing Manager - Core Network Business Unit, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and Moderator - Harindu Nanayakkara General Manager - Strategy and Business Intelligence of Sri Lanka Telecom and Senior Manager - Strategic Relationship & Regulatory of Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd.

Jaikishan Rajaraman – Vice President and Global Head of Technology, GSMA delivering his speech on “Mobile IOT – Scaling Global Deployments”

Delivery of the Key Note: Connecting beyond the horizon Overview of LPWA market and features of NB-IoT, future, stakeholders by Bruno Vilares Senior Marketing Manager - Core Network Business Unit, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd