How Aguardio leverages LTE-M to save water

Creating more intelligent buildings with cellular-enabled water monitoring.

In 2017, Aguardio’s CEO and Founder, Thomas Munch-Laursen, started researching what was necessary to develop an IoT device that monitored shower duration. An essential component was deciding how to connect their devices to a centralized platform. Early models and prototypes started with a WiFi-enabled device, but there were drawbacks, primarily the lack of plug-and-play functionality and battery lifetime.

The diverse backgrounds of Aguardio’s target market make plug-and-play a necessity for a successful deployment. That’s why choosing cellular connectivity over WiFi was a significant milestone in its journey.

Aguardio’s product doesn’t just involve building management; it requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders:

• Those who design, construct, and renovate buildings.
• Those who manage building operations.
• Those looking for smart-health solutions. For example, Aguardio sensors installed in schools help staff understand how often children use the bathroom because if they don’t go often enough, it can lead to bladder issues.

Aguardio’s mission is to help create bathrooms with sustainability at its core and be part of building management to help operations meet regulations and requirements for efficiency. In addition, Aguardio’s sensors monitor humidity, which can be a strong predictor of mold building, creating actionable insight such as avoiding future renovation costs. Humidity monitoring has been especially effective in mold-prone places like bathrooms at camping sites or common shower rooms.

The solution that Aguardio has created is an answer to what will be a future pain: the risk of water scarcity.

How Onomondo is helping Aguardio reach new markets

Onomondo provides Aguardio with access to a variety of different RAN technologies. While LTE-M and NB-IoT are limited in availability at scale, Onomondo has been able to offer several networks as Thomas and Anders scale their business.

When deciding on a provider, Thomas chose Onomondo’s LTE-M connectivity for several reasons. “Low cost on connectivity, especially because Aguardio’s devices use less than 1 MB of data per month since the data they send is in kilobytes. And our devices only send information once every 24 hours, and it is not critical data.” 

As the team continued to deploy devices in new markets in distant countries from its native Denmark, remote diagnostics became more critical. The customer support teams use Traffic Monitor, Network Logs, and Signaling Logs within the Onomondo portal. When an Aguardio customer needs assistance troubleshooting a device, the customer support team can resolve issues faster.

LTE-M network list selection

nomondo provides access to over 700 RANs worldwide, supporting numerous technologies. For Aguardio, this meant creating a Network List with LTE-M enabled in the Onomondo platform. Network Lists allow users to customize the coverage map to suit their business’s needs: cost or coverage. 

Aguardio has focused on LTE-M and NB-IoT for their products over the last three years. Earlier versions of Aguardio’s product relied on WiFi technologies. Aguardio’s team pivoted away from WiFi due to the lack of a plug-and-play capability and the heavy toll WiFi has on device battery life. 

There are three major benefits to LTE-M that improved Aguardio’s product:

• Improved data rates
• Better authentication and encryption
• Lower power consumption

In 2022, LTE-M and NB-IoT are still not widely available to MVNOs. This resistance to adoption makes it difficult for all IoT businesses to scale their products globally. Onomondo works closely with Aguardio and other customers to reach new agreements to accelerate deployments. Unfortunately, regulation change doesn’t happen overnight, but it is a challenge that Onomondo’s team strives to fulfill.

When discussing the expansion into new markets, Aguardio’s Anders Barkholt says, “Somebody needs to take the lead on challenging networks to make a more efficient world, and that’s what Onomondo is a part of.”

Resolve issues faster without asking for help

Customer support and development teams in IoT businesses often ask: “Why aren’t my devices online?” From FPLMN list issues to overconsumption of batteries, there are an abundance of reasons SIMs can go offline.

Onomondo’s platform includes insight tools that are crucial to a speedy resolution. Some of the tools Aguardio’s team has benefited from when assisting customers include:

Traffic Monitor is a live log that lets users capture, debug, and analyze all traffic on a device, no matter the location in the world, live. It’s like running Wireshark on the network instead of on the device.
Network Logs show which network devices authenticate with and attach to, including which technology was used (2G, 3G, 4G, LTE-M, and NB-IoT). Additionally, if a device fails to authenticate with a network, Network Logs will show why.
Signaling Logs provide an instant overview of the packets sent between the RAN and Onomondo. Users read these to debug devices faster, reducing downtime and service issues within one platform.

Unless working with a local MNO, most connectivity platforms do not offer this level of insight. Onomondo’s Network Core and deep integration with 700+ RANs provide this capability. When Aguardio’s customer support team debugged SIMs with a different service provider, it required getting in contact with that company’s customer support team. Contacting customer support every time an issue arises adds extra steps and increases the time it takes to resolve an issue.

Onomondo’s platform removes this step entirely, giving customers complete control over the information they need. When Aguardio team member Malene Paxton was asked about her experience with Onomondo’s platform, she said, “It is by far my favorite portal of them all, which is commendable.”

The first steps in solving a global water crisis

With global water scarcity challenges, strong partnerships between IoT businesses and connectivity partners are pertinent. Robust cellular connectivity with tools to help a company serve its customers is an essential component.

Right now, people only have estimates to go off of when considering their water usage in the bathroom. Accurate monitoring of this water usage is the first step in creating data-driven changes. Measuring both human behaviors in the bathroom and understanding the impacts of that behavior can lead to usage and billing information that didn’t exist before.

Thomas and Anders are on the road to becoming leaders in water and water usage monitoring. The team at Onomondo jumps at the chance to help Aguardio grow into new markets and educate on recent developments in RAN technologies. With new frontiers in IoT around every corner, the right partnership can significantly impact an entire industry. “Onomondo is one of the leaders in the industry. You can team up and immediately have the chance to work with data in several countries.” Anders Barkholt, COO, Aguardio.