Feature
UROS makes global connection for travellers and IoT
The fastest growing company in Finland has made a name for itself with smartphones and mobile hotspots. Now UROS is targeting the Internet of Things.
Picture this: you’re having the time of your life on holiday in Rome. You would like to send your friends back home a selfie of you in front of the Colosseum, but are afraid of an outrageous bill from your service provider waiting for you upon your return home. Clueless about how much roaming and data charges will cost, you go on your way, sad not to be able to share this experience.
Well, shed not a further tear. Finnish telecom services company UROS has the perfect solution.
The company was founded in 2011 and immediately set out to specialise in mobile international connectivity. Its first innovation on the market was Goodspeed Mobile Hotspot, a device which enables travellers to have high-speed and secure connections at a much lower cost than traditional roaming.
The company’s development has only continued to gather momentum since then. In fact, UROS has swiftly become the fastest-growing company in Finland, with a compound annual growth rate of over 640 per cent between 2014 and 2016.
Global roaming, global growth
“In addition to growing revenue, in 2016 we expanded the product line to Smartphone Roaming Apps and IoT as well,” says Jerry Raatikainen, president at UROS. “At the Mobile World Congress we announced our latest roaming smartphone V8Lite ZTE product with embedded Goodspeed roaming app.”
The partnership with the Chinese telecom powerhouse will see UROS’ roaming app on ZTE’s newer Blade smartphones. The deal is no one-off in the region, with Asia playing a central role in the company’s expansion. UROS also has a deal with China Telecom Global and offices in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Additionally, it has inked agreements with more than 60 operators worldwide.
“We are also seeing strong interest and demand from the African continent,” Raatikainen continues. “The high and sometimes complex roaming charges within the region can prohibit corporate travellers from using data services while travelling. In addition, we will focus on the Middle East, Caribbean and the Americas.”
Altogether, UROS’ solutions now cover over 120 countries. Whereas the Goodspeed Roaming App was designed for the traveller who wants to keep things simple and pay as needed, the company also offers Goodspeed for Business, which provides administration tools in addition to connectivity.
Next up: IoT
And it doesn’t stop there. Yet another of the company’s solutions is the result of a partnership between UROS and iBasis, which offers a local subscription to a mobile device.
Thus, Goodspeed devices, smartphones with the app and other devices can automatically select a local mobile operator as users travel across borders while using a single SIM card. This service is based upon the embedded SIM standard.
Not to be outdone, the Oulu-based company has also expanded into the Internet of Things. UROS is working with Pisara, a water management platform from Jyväskylä Energy, to provide smart management solutions for national water operation systems. Water quality can be maintained via AI and smart sensors, while equipment can be monitored for preventive maintenance.
“The benefits of our IoT solution are operational reliability, real-time monitoring and cost efficiency,” says Raatikainen. “We think demand from this industry will only grow bigger.”