- BT expands R&D efforts with NHSX, and adds Medic Bleep to its NHS offering. Enterprise expands its connected worker portfolio with Onsight from Librestream.
- Group Chief Executive Philip Jansen flagged that BT was collaborating with the National Health Service’s (NHS) innovation arm, NHSX, to enable remote monitoring of vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic. The aim is to build a system to support the “ultra‑vulnerable”. In a virtual interview with Facebook’s What Matters Now show, Jansen listed the collaboration as an example of BT’s response to the pandemic (the other being targeting of involvement in digital transformation within the judiciary system). In a seemingly separate exercise, BT recently announced it was trialling a Remote Diagnostic Station offering at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
- BT highlighted a distribution contract focused on Medic Bleep, a communications service likened to WhatsApp for clinicians. Developed by healthcare technology startup Medic Creations, it serves as a digital alternative to the traditional pagers used by doctors and nurses to communicate. Robert Jones, Head of Messaging at BT, said the partnership will enable Medic Bleep to be “scaled at pace across the NHS”.
- BT provided the network infrastructure for a Narrowband Internet of Things (NB‑IoT) pilot by utility Yorkshire Water, working in partnership with engineering service provider Stantec. Nearly 4,000 flow pressure and water quality monitors will be connected to the NB‑IoT network, supported by BT’s newly upgraded masts in Sheffield. In 2019, BT won a contract to deliver “smart water” services based on low power wide area network technology to neighbouring Northumbria Water (BTwatch, #303).
- Enterprise is in the process of onboarding Librestream’s augmented reality (AR)‑equipped connected worker technology to its Field Force Automation (FFA) portfolio. Robert Lumley, Senior Commercial Partnership Manager for FFA, described the Onsight system as a natural extension to BT’s safety‑ and productivity-focused service suite. “After the onboarding process concludes, customers will be able to purchase the Onsight solution through BT”, he said. Canada‑based Librestream flagged that the Onsight platform is now also featured in Adastral Park’s Connected Industry Customer Showcase.
- BT Wholesale and partner Mavenir were named winners of the Small Cell Forum’s Outstanding Innovation in Small‑Cell Business Case award. The partnership focuses on a neutral‑host, virtualised in‑building small‑cell solution, highlighted by BT in 2019 as an alternative to distributed antenna systems (BTwatch, #303).
