Icomera today congratulates its Chief Technology Officer, Mats Karlsson, on being awarded the Polhem Prize (Polhemspriset) 2025, Sweden’s foremost distinction for outstanding technological innovation.
Bestowed by the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers, Engineers of Sweden, and named after the pioneering inventor Christopher Polhem, the prize honours innovations that have reached the market and proven competitive.
First and foremost an individual award to Mats Karlsson, this recognition reflects a decades‑long contribution to technological progress. Karlsson was the original inventor of Icomera’s patented multi‑network aggregation connectivity technology, making consistent, high‑capacity Internet to moving vehicles possible. In 2003, that work enabled the first commercial onboard passenger Wi‑Fi service in rail, helping to catalyse a new industry segment and set expectations for the connected journey.
Mats Karlsson: “I’m happy, proud and surprised because the thought of a prize has never crossed my mind. I see it as a recognition of many years of hard work. Engineering has always been about solving real‑world problems elegantly, then scaling those solutions reliably. From the earliest lab tests to today’s fleet‑wide deployments, our goal has been simple: give public transport a connectivity foundation it can trust, so passengers enjoy better journeys and operators gain real‑time insight and control.”
Today, Icomera – now a wholly owned subsidiary of Equans – holds patents across more than 30 patent families. These innovations continue to expand the performance envelope and practical use cases of onboard connectivity, serving tens of thousands of vehicles and millions of passengers every day. The company unifies low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) satellite, private trackside, and high‑performing cellular networks into a single, operator‑friendly service layer. This powers passenger‑visible improvements such as reliable Wi‑Fi and richer journey information, as well as operational value through real‑time system monitoring and video analytics.
Catherine Chardon, CEO, Icomera: “On behalf of everyone at Icomera, I congratulate Mats on receiving Sweden’s Polhem Prize, his vision for reliable onboard connectivity has shaped our industry. Over the past year we’ve reinforced our position – becoming an authorised reseller of SpaceX’s Starlink for trains to stay at the forefront of improving connectivity and, building on that foundation, enabling the next generation of connected applications such as AI-powered Automatic Passenger Counting solutions.
“Our commitment to helping operators unlock smarter, data-driven services, through connectivity, is clear: we are their trusted partner, turning innovation into dependable, fleet-wide value.”
About the Polhem Prize (Polhemspriset)
Christopher Polhem (1661–1751) was one of Sweden’s most prominent innovators of all time. Every year, the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers awards the Polhem Prize – Sweden’s oldest technical award. The prize was established in 1876 and next year the Polhem Prize celebrates its 150th anniversary. The Polhem Prize is awarded for high-level technical innovation or for an ingenious solution to a technical problem. The innovation must be available on the open market and be competitive. Previous Polhem Prize winners include Baltzar von Platen and Carl Munthers for the refrigerator (1925), Håkan Lans for colour graphics and transponder for positioning systems with GPS (1995), Petra Wadström for the water purifier Solvatten (2013), Ludvig Strigeus for the technology behind Spotify (2020) and Christopher Ahlberg and Staffan Truvé for the cyber protection Recorded Future (2023). Read more about the Polhem Prize here
