BROWSING: France

French IoT chipmaker Sequans Communications, which saw its $249m takeover by Japan-based Renesas Electronics come undone at the eleventh hour at the end of last month, has been granted €10.9 million from the French government to go towards development of 5G-based ‘reduced capability’ (RedCap)...

Swedish IoT operator Netmore Group has acquired the public LoRaWAN network assets of operator Bouygues Telecom in France. The deal has been facilitated by Polar Structure, parent company of Netmore, and covers the Objenious-branded LoRaWAN infrastructure that Bouygues had earmarked 18 months ago for...

The business division of France-based mobile operator Orange is offering a hybrid public/private (‘private’) standalone 5G (SA) solution in its home country, combining simultaneous access to its public network with private network deployments for enterprises. It is the first time it has offered a...

New York headquartered GlobalFoundries and Switzerland-headquartered STMicroelectronics (STMicro) have confirmed a deal to build a jointly-operated semiconductor manufacturing facility in Crolles, in France, at a total project cost of €7.5 billion – of which around €3 billion will reportedly be provided by the French...

Swedish IoT operator Netmore Group has started to deploy a public LoRaWAN network in France, it has said. Its French debut follows a period of busy expansion in 2022, following its acquisition of Nordic IoT Networks in early 2021 and its strategic shift to...

French water distribution company Société de Gérance et de Distribution d'Eau (Sogedo) has signed a 10 year deal with Singapore-based IoT development house Unabiz, which owns the Sigfox IoT network technology, to enhance water conservation and management in France. Sogedo will deploy more residential...

The “largest private industrial 5G network in Europe” has opened in Calais, in France, using 59 small cell antennas to cover a 50,000 square-metre production site belonging to Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), the optical submarine division of telecoms vendor Nokia. The Finnish firm has...

Singapore-based UnaBiz, owner of the Sigfox technology, has completed a Series B funding extension worth $25 million, to take its total Series B investment, initially pegged at $25 million in late 2021, to over $50 million. The new funding comes from existing investors, led...

A session at Private Networks European Forum (PNEF) last month considered the challenges, and broader cultural shift, to bring ‘private 5G to the masses’. Koen Mioulet, secretary at the European Users Wireless Enterprise Network Association (EUWENA), and Maria Cuevas, networks research director at UK-based...

Note, this is a revised version of the intro/outro statements at Private Networks European Forum earlier this month, presented then as a way to invite conversation about the state of ‘things’ in Europe, and re-presented now as a think-piece for the same. It considers...

French regulator Arcep has awarded three new trial spectrum licences for enterprises to deploy private 5G networks in the 3.8-4.0 GHz band, taking its total roster of enterprise trialists in France to 13. The band is being liberated for French enterprises, in line with...

This is article is taken from a recent editorial report on Industrial 5G Innovation – From Setting Standard to Becoming Standard; the previous instalment in this serialised version of the report is available here. Subsequent instalments are listed below (linking either to the original...

France-based precision agriculture startup Sencrop has raised $18 million in Series B funding, led by Israeli venture capital firm JVP. Sencrop, founded in 2016, headquartered in Lille, claims to be Europe’s leading provider of “field-connected solutions”, with 20,000 farmers in 20 countries, mainly in...

Singapore-based UnaBiz is the new owner of France-based ultra-narrowband IoT company Sigfox, the Commercial Court of Toulouse confirmed today. UnaBiz has acquired Sigfox SA, the primary technology company, and Sigfox France SAS, its network operator subsidiary in France. The deal, which takes Sigfox out...

The Commercial Court of Toulouse in France has delayed its decision on the sale of Sigfox until April 21. The decision, originally scheduled for today (April 14), gives Singapore-based UnaBiz, the long-time front-runner to buy ailing IoT firm, another week to appeal against the...

France-based facility services company Derichebourg Multiservices has integrated 1,200 IoT sensors into the LED ceiling lights at its new headquarters in Créteil (pictured), near Paris. Data from the sensors will help the firm optimise its energy management at the site, as well as to...

Singapore-based UnaBiz, the front-runner in the race to buy Sigfox, has had its bid for the ailing French IoT firm blocked by the French Ministry of Economy, as political hyper-sensitivity around economic nationalism, and even protectionism, mounts ahead of the French presidential elections on...

An Open Letter to Presidential Candidate Macron Subject: Resumption of Sigfox activity #SauvonsSigfox #ReviensLeon Presidential candidate Macron, You gave me a taste for politics. You have given me hope in a government with progressive values, capable of destroying dogmatic practices that chained France to immobility and futile...

Custom-machine manufacturer MGA Technologies has engaged Finland-based industrial networking specialist Edzcom, owned by Spanish tower company Cellnex, to deploy a private 5G network from Nokia at its new MGA TechLab 4.0 in Lyon, in France. The network went live in January; new Industry 4.0...

Orange Business Services, the global enterprise division of France-based operator Orange, has struck a deal with German industrial giant Siemens in France to combine on industrial IoT, private 5G networks, cloud and edge computing, data analytics, and cybersecurity.  The partnership brings together the two companies’...

Finnish private networking specialist Edzcom has been appointed by industrial machine manufacturer MGA Technologies to build a private 5G network at its new Industry 4.0 innovation lab near Lyon, in France. Edzcom called the installation the “first private 5G lab” in France – for...

ArcelorMittal has cut the ribbon at a new ‘digital lab’ in Dunkirk, in France, adjacent to its largest Europe-based steel production site. The new lab, which opens in September, will host manufacturing partners, start-ups, and universities, and be the epicentre of the company’s digital...

Orange will begin deployment of the 5G standalone network in the town of Lannion, with expansion expected in 2022 Orange is launching a test Standalone (SA) 5G network in France to evaluate the benefits of cloud, AI and new radio technologies on its operation and...

Électricité de France (EDF) has appointed Thales and Ericsson to design and supply private industrial-grade LTE networks at all of its nuclear energy sites in France. The company has 56 nuclear power reactors in the country, and the stated schedule is to connect “two-to-four”...