OTE, Greece's national telecommunications operator and owner of the Cosmote mobile network, runs a Fleximodo smart parking system in Athens. The in-ground sensors connect over NB-IoT on Cosmote's own network, so OTE needed no gateways and no third-party connectivity. BLE permit cards identify authorised vehicles, and IoT-HUB processes both data streams.
The system went live in 2023 and both streams, bay occupancy and permit card data, were still in use in 2026. That combination lets OTE show a municipality two things at once: where free spaces are, and whether the car in a bay is allowed to be there.
What was deployed
- IoT Parking Sensor Standard, in-ground, NB-IoT on Cosmote, magnetometer plus radar detection, IP68 and IK10
- IoT Permit Card, BLE, carried in permit holders' vehicles
- IoT-HUB, with separate processing for sensor events (occupancy, heartbeats, battery) and card events (detection, validation, card battery)
- CityPortal, white-labelled, for parking navigation and administration
Why it matters for telecom operators
A telecom operator already owns the network a parking sensor needs. With NB-IoT, a sensor installed in the road registers on the operator's own cells, and the operator controls coverage, provisioning and support end to end. There is no LoRaWAN gateway layer to build or maintain, and no second supplier in the connectivity chain.
The permit card layer turns occupancy data into an enforcement tool. A sensor reports that a bay is taken, the card confirms whether the vehicle holds a valid permit, and wardens can go straight to the bays that need a check instead of walking every street. That is useful wherever blue-zone or resident parking rules need regular checks.
Related: Novoville in Athens uses a different set-up, combining NB-IoT and LoRaWAN sensors.