ISDN brings industrial automation to farms, oil fields, grids with Whizpace tie-up

ISDN Holdings is partnering Singapore-based wireless communications provider Whizpace to deliver wide-area Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions globally.

This strategic partnership will extend the reach of ISDN's industrial-automation solutions into "exciting frontiers" where intelligent devices can be connected over wide spaces such as farms, oil fields, ships, forests, transport pipelines, utility grids and mines, it said.

The mainboard-listed company's solutions are used in sectors including semiconductors, Industry 4.0 intelligent manufacturing, medical devices, aerospace and clean energy.

In a press statement on Friday, ISDN chief executive officer (CEO) Teo Cher Koon noted that Industry 4.0 "must deliver intelligence and connectivity to every corner of the enterprise", beyond the walls of the factory or office, and including wide-area spaces where many of the world's biggest industries operate.

Whizpace is a spin-off company of Singapore's national research organisation, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star). The startup taps TV White Space, also known as "super Wi-Fi", which are essentially unused television broadcasting airwaves, to bring Internet access to remote locations.

Whizpace's patented TV band connectivity thus fills an important gap in ISDN's portfolio of industrial connectivity technologies.

The startup provides reliable, low-energy connectivity in the 2-10 km range, reducing installation cost and complexity, and is resilient against a wide range of weather conditions, ISDN said.

Whizpace CEO Oh Ser Wah described the two companies as "deeply complementary", with ISDN bringing 30 years of deep solutions experience, a customer base of more than 10,000 enterprises across Asia, and access to hundreds of automation technology vendors and components.

Shares of ISDN finished unchanged at 63.5 Singapore cents on Friday, before the announcement.

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