French firm aims to expand internet of things network coverage to the rest of the country next year
Sigfox, a French provider of global communications service for the “internet of things,” announced the deployment of its dedicated IoT network in Mexico in partnership with its Latin American partner WDN.
IoTNet Mexico, a subsidiary of local energy services firm Nxtview, is also taking part in the rollout process, Sigfox officials said. The firm will be the exclusive Sigfox network operator in Mexico once the network goes live.
“As part of a group that is providing utility services to major Mexican companies and is deploying the first metering-as-a-service in the country, we made an extensive comparison of the available low-power wide-area and cellular technologies and concluded Sigfox was superior in simplicity, choice of hardware vendors and ecosystem support,” said IoTNet Mexico’s CEO Daniel Guevara.
The companies said they have initiated the rollout in Mexico City and expect to complete citywide coverage by the end of this year, with plans to extend service availability nationwide during 2017.
With the launch in Mexico, Sigfox operates its IoT network in 21 markets. In Latin America, the company already provides services in Brazil and confirmed it will soon cover 53% of Latin America’s territory and 56% of its population.
“With the addition of Mexico, Sigfox and its network operator partners are currently deploying the Sigfox network in countries totaling 1 billion people, with one-third of this population under effective coverage today,” said Rodolphe Baronnet-Frugès, EVP for networks and operators at Sigfox.
In November, Sigfox selected 10 U.S. cities for its initial launch: San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, California; New York; Boston; Atlanta; Austin, Houston and Dallas, Texas; and Chicago. Last month, Sigfox said it would bring its dedicated IoT networks to 100 American cities by the end of 2016.
China Unicom, Huawei announce ‘internet of things’ smart parking solution for Shanghai
In related news, Huawei and China Unicom Shanghai jointly released an narrowband-IoT-based smart parking solution.
On May 4, the Shanghai government and China Unicom signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to promote IoT initiatives. Under terms of the agreement, China Unicom will initially deploy dedicated NB-IoT networks across Shanghai to improve the operation management capabilities and efficiency of the city.
China Unicom Shanghai has worked with compatriot firm Huawei to deploy a “4.5G” NB-IoT-based network providing coverage at Shanghai’s hotels and business area, with more than 300 NB-IoT-based smart vehicle detectors at the P1 parking lot, providing an E2E smart-parking solution that involves terminals, base stations, servers and mobile phone apps.
