In order to prove the quality of Vodafone’s 4.5G expanded coverage in places without human settlement, we decided to serve for a greater cause and solve a problem of nature. Since our target audience was Turkey, a social responsibility project would be a great way to get everyone’s attention.

In order to continue Vodafone’s projects for sustainable life that have been going on for years and help prevent forest fires, we developed a sensory system to warn the relevant institutions about forest fires by using the quality expanded coverage and M2M tech. We crafted the Treephone project, reinforcing the perception of the brand as being more than a GSM operator, serving for a greater cause with high quality in technologic services. We placed temperature-measuring devices on forest trees in areas that are most sensitive of fire. The devices warned the relevant institutions in real-time if the temperature would be more than it is under normal circumstances. Usage of real-time data, generated by the trees themselves, enabled the rapid notifying of the authorities who arrived shortly after the warning, preventing the fire to expand. The project ran between May 2016–January 2017, covering summer when the forest fires are most frequent.

Treephone project planted 60 Treephone devices on trees and thanks to the real-time data transmitted through Vodafone’s network, warning the relevant institutions about fires, 65,5 hectars of forest were saved. The saved forest land is equivalent of the scale of 936 football fields, which means that this project alone prevented one fifth of the annual forest destruction that occurs in Turkey, with approximately 70,000 trees saved. The perception of Vodafone’s quality expanded coverage improved by 30%, 5% more than initially expected.