We’re in the ACTAP — testing the future of connected housing diagnostics

Programmes · 5G & IoT · Housing | April 2026

We are happy to share that PontePatros has been selected to participate in Digital Catapult’s Smart Nano Advanced Connectivity Technology Access Programme (ACTAP)! We’re genuinely excited about what this unlocks for us and for the people living in the homes we’re trying to help.

For those who don’t know us: PontePatros builds a connectivity-agnostic indoor air quality (IAQ) sensor platform designed specifically for social and affordable housing. Our sensors detect damp, mould risk, and retrofit performance — the issues that too often go unnoticed until they become dangerous.

“The problem with housing diagnostics isn’t just the data. It’s getting the data out reliably, from basements to tower blocks to retrofitted terraces. Connectivity is everything.”

What is the ACTAP?

The ACTAP is a structured validation programme run by Digital Catapult, giving UK SMEs access to Northern Ireland’s largest private 5G and Cellular IoT testbed. Participants work through guided validation sprints — with access to private 5G Standalone, 4G, NB-IoT, LTE-M, and Wi-Fi 6E networks, alongside GPU-enabled edge compute for real-time analytics.

Crucially, this isn’t a lab simulation. It’s an operational network environment. Meaning the data we generate reflects what happens in the real world, not ideal conditions.

What we’re hoping to test

Our platform is built to be connectivity-agnostic. That’s a core part of our value proposition for housing associations and local authorities, where a block of flats might span half a dozen network conditions in a single stairwell. But “connectivity-agnostic” needs to be proven, not just claimed.

• 5G and NB-IoT sensor performance in dense residential environments

Testing how our sensors behave across multiple network types simultaneously, mimicking real social housing deployments where signal conditions vary dramatically between floors and across building materials.

• Latency and data integrity under cellular IoT constraints

IAQ monitoring is only useful if readings are timely and trustworthy. We need to understand thresholds: how often can we sample, how quickly does data arrive, and what degrades first?

• Edge compute viability for on-device pre-processing

Rather than pushing raw sensor streams to the cloud, we want to explore whether GPU-enabled edge processing can reduce bandwidth requirements and improve response times for damp and mould risk alerts.

• Network switching resilience

What happens when a device moves between LoRaWAN coverage and NB-IoT, or fails over from 5G to LTE-M? We want clean, documented answers we can present to housing association procurement teams with confidence.

Why this matters for social housing

Housing associations, local authorities, and Decent Homes-focused landlords are under growing pressure to evidence retrofit performance and meet Awaab’s Law compliance timelines. The demand for reliable, scalable indoor monitoring is real. Understandably, procurement teams are sceptical of solutions that work in demos and fail in buildings built in the 1960s with reinforced concrete walls and no signal strategy.

The evidence base we build through ACTAP will help us answer those procurement questions with real-world performance data, not just a slide deck. That matters enormously for the communities we ultimately serve.

Want to be part of this with us?

We’re actively looking to connect with housing associations, local authorities, and landlords who are thinking about retrofit monitoring, damp and mould diagnostics, or cellular IoT in their housing stock. It can be an existing programme, a pilot you’re scoping, or just an early conversation about what’s possible.

We’re also keen to hear from other PropTech and IoT founders navigating similar connectivity challenges. The ACTAP cohort is a collaborative space, and shared learning benefits everyone.

If any of this resonates, we’d love to talk.

[hello@pontepatros.com