Swedish health tech company Hepro Care (formerly Zafe Care Systems) uses Deutsche Telekom's multi-operator IoT connectivity to keep care alarms and sensors reliably connected – across networks and technologies.
Hepro AS/Photographer: Raymond Engmark
Europe must prepare for a long-term care surge, a recent Bruegel policy brief warns. With aging populations across the continent, governments are funding municipalities to adopt digital care solutions – from personal care alarms to fall detectors – that enable elderly people to remain safely at home. The technology behind this shift is built on the Internet of Things (IoT), with a simple principle: when an emergency occurs, the connection must work.
For example, when an elderly person living at home presses the alarm on their wristband, every second counts. The signal travels via Bluetooth to a care panel installed in the home. From there, the panel uses the mobile network to alert a professional response center and simultaneously send an SMS to a family member. Within moments, a care professional calls back through the panel's built-in speaker and microphone to assess the situation. If a camera or radar sensor is installed, the response center can also start a live video feed.
This is the daily reality for thousands of households across Sweden – enabled by Hepro Care (formerly Zafe Care Systems), one of the country's longest-established health tech companies. For 25 years, the company has developed IoT-based care solutions ranging from care panels and GPS alarms to door lock systems, radar sensors, and medical dispensers.
The Nordic care market is shifting from institutional to home-based care. In Sweden, one in four nursing homes closed between 2000 and 2015, according to Nordic research body NordForsk – yet the number of people requiring care continues to grow. The Swedish government is responding by funding municipalities to adopt digital care solutions, enabling more people to remain safely in their own homes for longer. Hepro Care serves both assisted living facilities and municipalities equipping private households with connected care devices – a fast-growing segment across the Nordics.
With this growth come higher expectations. Municipalities increasingly require redundant connectivity: devices must support multiple communication paths such as mobile network, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. “Reliability is not optional when lives depend on it”, says Robin Hägglund, Head of IT, Hepro Care.
Before partnering with Deutsche Telekom, Hepro Care relied on a single national mobile operator in Sweden. The SIM cards integrated in their devices connected exclusively to that operator's own network – even when competing networks offered stronger coverage at a given location. “Over three years, eight nationwide outages disrupted our service”, Hägglund says. “On two occasions, SIM cards were accidentally deactivated when batch numbers collided with those of another customer.”
For a company whose devices are designed to protect vulnerable people, these incidents were unacceptable. Hepro Care looked for a connectivity partner that could offer independence from any single network operator – and the flexibility to scale internationally.
Modern care alarm systems consist of a wearable device – typically a wristband – and a stationary care panel installed in the home. When the wearer presses the alarm button, the wristband sends a signal via Bluetooth, ZigBee, or the Nordic care frequency (869 MHz) to the care panel. The panel then uses the mobile network to contact a professional response center, which can call back, start a video feed, or dispatch assistance. Simultaneously, relatives can be notified by SMS. Additional sensors such as radar detectors or cameras can be integrated to monitor movement patterns and detect falls.
Hepro Care switched to Deutsche Telekom’s global IoT connectivity. The core advantage: each SIM card automatically selects the strongest available mobile network at any given location – whether LTE or 5G, and regardless of the local operator. At a single site, different devices may connect to different networks depending on signal strength, ensuring optimal coverage for each individual unit.
Deutsche Telekom provides flexible data plans tailored to different device types. Care panels, which primarily transmit voice calls and alarm signals, use low-bandwidth tariffs. Camera and sensor solutions that stream video or transmit larger data volumes operate on data-intensive plans. All of this is managed through a single provider and a single point of contact.
"With Deutsche Telekom, our devices automatically connect to the strongest network available. That gives us the reliability our care recipients depend on."
Robin Hägglund, Head of IT, Hepro Care
The partnership between Hepro Care and Deutsche Telekom illustrates a principle that applies far beyond healthcare: when IoT devices perform safety-critical functions, connectivity must be resilient, redundant, and independent of any single operator. For the people who depend on Hepro Care's alarms every day – and for their families – that reliability is not a technical detail. It is the foundation of their safety at home.
Hepro Care AB develops IoTbased care solutions that help care providers deliver safer and more efficient services. Hepro’s portfolio includes care panels, personal safety alarms, GPS devices, camera solutions, and digital supervision systems used by municipalities and assisted living facilities across Sweden. Founded 25 years ago as Zafe Care and part of the listed Swedish Life Science group AddLife AB, the company will change its name to Hepro Care AB in 2026 and become the Swedish unit of Norwegian sister company Hepro AS, which has been developing assistive devices and digital health technology since 1987. Hepro Care is part of the Hepro Group, together with Hepro in Norway and Hepro Care companies in Denmark, Finland, and England. The Hepro Group is owned by AddLife AB, a leading Life Science player in the European market.
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