Syntony rises high by going underground

Syntony GNSS, a simulator company based in Toulouse, France, has landed a €1 million location infrastructure project for the underground metro in Stockholm, Sweden.

Stockholm’s metro stations are deep underground, dug under the sea in and around Stockholm. The metro lacked a system that would enable emergency 911 calls with associated essential localized position information to be carried from within the stations.

Syntony was able to provide a GPS-like signal infrastructure at the stations that is compatible with GPS-enabled smartphones. Instead of using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the system reproduces the GPS signal with transmitters, a signal recognizable by smartphones. With the system installed, emergency calls can be located in the underground. During its proof-of-concept tests, Syntony verified that there was no radiation of the signal outside any of the entrances to the test station — and therefore no GPS interference.

The system worked so well that Syntony was contracted in January to equip all 50 metro stations in Stockholm. Syntony is now is in talks with Singapore and is working to spread its system to the metros of other major cities worldwide.