Slovanet is a Slovak telecom operator that runs its own nationwide LoRaWAN network. In 2023 it used that network to bring smart parking to Skalica, a small town in western Slovakia near the Czech border. The deployment pairs in-ground occupancy sensors with Permit Cards, so the town can see both whether a bay is taken and whether the car in it is allowed to be there.
At a glance
| Location | Skalica, Slovakia |
| Sector | Municipal permit-zone parking, delivered by a telecom operator |
| Products | IoT Parking Sensor Standard (in-ground), IoT Permit Card, IoT-HUB |
| Connectivity | LoRaWAN (Slovanet's own network) for sensors, Bluetooth Low Energy for cards |
| Scale | 8 sensors in the first zone, installed on site |
Why run it on Slovanet's own LoRaWAN?
Because the network was already there. Slovanet has operated LoRaWAN gateways in Slovak cities since 2016, for metering, environmental monitoring and other IoT services. Skalica did not have to build or maintain any gateway infrastructure. The sensors joined the existing network as soon as they were in the ground.
For the operator this also keeps everything in one place: Slovanet provides the connectivity, the hardware installation and the service to the town, with Fleximodo supplying sensors, cards and the IoT-HUB platform behind them.
Why add Permit Cards to occupancy sensors?
A sensor on its own tells you a bay is occupied. It cannot tell you whether that vehicle has a permit. In Skalica's compact centre, permit zones were checked by hand: an officer walking the street and reading paper permits behind windscreens. That is slow, and residents complained both about bays being taken by non-permit holders and about checks feeling inconsistent.
Permit Cards close that gap. Each authorised vehicle carries a small card that the in-ground sensor in the bay detects over Bluetooth. The system then records two facts together: the bay is occupied, and the vehicle is (or is not) carrying a valid card. Staff can see unauthorised parking without patrolling every street, and every vehicle is checked the same way. See parking enforcement for how this workflow is used elsewhere.
Why in-ground sensors with temperature compensation?
Western Slovakia has freezing winters and hot summers. Magnetometer readings drift with temperature, and uncorrected drift can look like a car arriving or leaving. The Standard sensor combines a magnetometer with radar and recalibrates its baseline for temperature automatically, which keeps detection stable through the seasons.
For another municipality combining sensors with Permit Cards, see Ulm.