In a landscape coloured by autumnal leaves, several generations of reindeer herders sat down to ponder the situation of their industry while enjoying a steaming cup – or to be more precise, a guksi – of traditional black pot coffee. Turn the clock forward four years, and about 50 customers are taking good care of their reindeers’ health with the aid of Rudolf, a device that started life during this coffee break.
Established in 2018, Anicare Oy manufactures devices that are designed to facilitate the daily lives of reindeer herders and ease their workloads. Rudolf makes it easy to pinpoint the location of a particular reindeer and, for example, detect any changes in the animal’s health.
“Lost reindeer are one of the major challenges we face, as about ten per cent of the population disappears and only about one in five lost reindeer are found. The ability to follow individuals is therefore a big help to reindeer herders, whose number-one priority is naturally to keep the herd healthy, vital and, above all, safe,” says Anicare’s CEO, Aki Marttila.
Reindeer tend to spend time in areas with suboptimal telecommunications coverage. Anicare has solved this problem using NB-IoT technology.
Anicare discussed the various options for IoT connectivity and decided on NB-IoT, as its reliability best met the company’s needs.
“Connection speed was not the decisive factor for us – we needed reliability even in demanding conditions. NB-IoT technology has almost limitless coverage and enables long-life solutions that don’t require maintenance,” says Marttila.
You can get up to five years of active use out of a Rudolf device, as NB-IoT uses very little battery power. However, the technology is able to transfer large volumes of data when required.
NB-IoT also makes devices easy to update.
“We’re continually developing Rudolf. When new features become available, we can effortlessly update all of our customers’ devices, thereby enabling them to get the most out of it. We considered all the available web technologies, but NB-IoT was definitely the best for our needs,” says Marttila.
In addition to IoT subscriptions, Anicare is also using DNA’s mobile subscriptions and mobile broadband, which are used by the ten-person company for management, sales and marketing.
“We’ve been really satisfied with the service and technical support we’ve received from DNA, which has been excellent from the outset. From a business perspective, both IoT subscriptions and NB-IoT technology have played a major role, but it also helps to have a working mobile phone for making calls,” laughs Marttila.
We improved our customer’s business efficiency with the following solutions:
• DNA IoT subscriptions
• DNA Mobile Subscriptions
• DNA Mobile Broadband
