The project covers 98 percent of the South Essex region from 44 gateway sites — well below the 60 originally estimated after radio frequency planning reduced the build scope. The final cost came in £40,000 under budget.
The network runs on dark fibre already owned by the participating councils: Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point, Rochford, Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock, and Essex County. By treating that existing investment as a shared backbone, the authorities avoided duplicating infrastructure costs across seven separate IoT programmes.
Services already running include flood and temperature sensors, damp and occupancy monitoring in public buildings, carbon monoxide detectors, footfall counters in libraries and town centres, vehicle and people counting, and bin-fill monitors. The platform is built as an open system, letting councils procure sensors from any supplier rather than being tied to a single vendor.
A second LoRaWAN network built on the same infrastructure can be offered to local businesses and public sector partners, which Abzorb says could generate revenue for the councils from the original capital investment.
Carol Thomas, Director of Digital and ICT at Southend-on-Sea City Council, said the approach stood out because Abzorb worked across six councils with different priorities. "We now have a platform that every department across the region can build on, and the fact that it came in under budget only reinforces how much value Abzorb brought to this project. This is exactly the kind of innovative thinking the public sector needs."
Dr. Dean Al-Sened, Head of Public Sector and Enterprise at Abzorb, positions the project as a replicable model. "This project is a blueprint for how IoT infrastructure should be delivered across the public sector." The company intends to work with councils across the UK to replicate the approach.
To stay across the latest in cloud, AI and enterprise tech analysis from Compare the Cloud, subscribe to our weekly newsletter at https://www.comparethecloud.net/newsletter
