Sigfox is finishing 2019 with a flurry of announcements. These include the launch of its Private Area Network (PAN), which will be deployed in the 65+ countries where Sigfox operates its global network, with initial testing in France in Q1 2020.
Sigfox’s network currently delivers indoor coverage and high capacity in dense areas such as cities and towns. In 2020, it will complete its WAN coverage, in part due to a constellation of nanosatellites that will provide global connectivity and bolster coverage which are being provided by Eutelsat.
Going forward, Sigfox operators will be able to offer its PAN to customers who prefer a CAPEX investment. PAN customers will get the same quality and support levels as WAN customers and will be able to suscribe to an additional ‘WAN extension’ should they wish to benefit from redundancy and flexibility in the event that devices need to communicate outside their local network.
“Sigfox’s PAN offer will benefit from the existing ecosystem around the Sigfox WAN. The possibility of using all the components on the market, combined with the use of extremely low transmission power to support objects without the need for batteries, gives Sigfox’s PAN offer huge potential,” commented Ludovic Le Moan, CEO and co-founder of Sigfox.
In other announcements:
- Sigfox enhances its geolocation, completing the rollout of Atlas WiFi in partnership with mapping experts HERE Technologies. Sigfox’s WiFi trackers query HERE’s global database of WiFi access points to accurately track assets while using less battery power than GPS. Sigfox is also enhancing its Atlas Native geolocation service (launched January 2017) by providing Atlas Native Complimentary, which is being offered free in exchange for data processing rights of GPS location data. Using machine learning algorithms, Sigfox then uses the data to improve geolocation accuracy down to 800 metres.
- Sigfox launches air industry offer. PinPoint, a strategic alliance between Sigfox and Amadeus, is set to support end-to-end asset tracking of luggage and high-value assets for the air transport industry, aimed at reducing customer frustration and financial loss. The first PinPoint services will be launched in 2020.
- Sigfox announces support for Japanese gas meters. Japan’s NICIGAS will connect 850,000 gas metres to the Sigfox network by the end of FY2020. Sigfox will transmit data from the Network Controlling Unit to the NICIGAS IoT platform to enable hourly reading of meters. This will ensure more accurate prediction of the remaining gas, so that households can be supplied with a new cylinder more quickly. The deployment uses a retrofitted gas meter reader developed by UnaBiz and SORACOM and will also support automatic cut off of the gas valve, a feature that is particularly valuable in earthquake prone areas.
About Sigfox
In 2010, Sigfox began rolling out a ‘0G’ offering – a low-cost and low-consumption network for small IoT messages. It installed thousands of antennas in major cities worldwide, building the foundations of a high-capacity, seamless, one-way network that allows objects to communicate independently and securely. Since then, it has expanded its offering to two-way services and localization services. By the end of 2019, it will have more than 15 million registered objects worldwide and 1,500+ customers. A key use case has been traceability, which is significant for industries such as logistics and supply chains. The company is headquartered in France and has offices in Madrid, Munich, Boston, Dallas, San Jose, Dubai, Singapore, Sao Paulo and Tokyo.
In the UK and LATAM the service provider for Sigfox is WND.