KPN pushing Internet of Things in environment, healthcare

KPN is pushing new initiatives in the areas of cloud computing hosting and Internet of Things in an effort to reverse the downward trend the company has been facing in the corporate market, Dow Jones reports. Over the past few years the shrinking corporate market has led to major pressure on the telecom company's revenues. Last quarter sales fell by 8.9 percent to 622 million euros and the operating profit decreased by 20 percent to 123 million euros. The company now plans to turn this around with new initiatives. "We're not there yet, but we are on the right track", chief executive Eelco Blok said to the Dow Jones. "We are confident that we will be able to reverse the downward trend in the corporate market, as we already succeeded in doing in the consumer markets." One of the measures the company hopes will boost the corporate market is the Internet of Things - the technology to connect all kinds of devices with each other over the internet. "We want to, as KPN, contribute to the establishment of an Internet of Things ecosystem in the Netherlands, said CFO Jan Kees de Jager. Later this year KPN will be introducing "LoRa" in the Netherlands. LoRa is a new service that will run next to the existing 2G, 3G and 4G networks and will send small information packets over long distances by means of low-frequency radio signals. This will involve relatively simple data transfer, for example transferring location data for monitoring dikes or health data from wearables, according De Jager.