French dedicated IoT network provider Sigfox is investing big in the U.S IoT market with plans to deploy its purpose-built network in 100 cities by the end of the year.
Sigfox currently operates in 18 countries and has more than 7 million registered devices in its network. The company provides a subscription-based low-power, wide-area (LPWA) communications offer for the Internet of Things.
In November last year, Sigfox had selected 10 U.S. cities for its initial launch: San Fransisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, Calif.; New York; Boston; Atlanta; Austin, Houston and Dallas, Texas; and Chicago.
According to a report by tech consultancy IDC, North America will have the world’s third-largest installed base of IoT units (7.5 billion) by 2020. To achieve rapid network deployment in 100 U.S. cities before the end of this year and meet the market’s strong demand, Sigfox has partnered with multiple site owners, including tower, rooftop and billboard sites. Together the partnerships give the company access to more than 230,000 sites across the United States.
“The U.S. is a huge growth market for Internet of Things connectivity, especially in smart cities, utilities, shipping and agriculture sectors that require large-scale and cost-effective communication,” Allen Proithis, president of Sigfox North America, said. “Our partnerships with these site owners enables Sigfox to leverage existing sites to rapidly deploy our out-of-the-box connectivity solution in the U.S. market. Sigfox’s low-cost Internet of Things connectivity complements cellular networks, and allows billions of additional devices to participate in the benefits of IoT.”
Last month, Sigfox said it has started to deploy its dedicated IoT network throughout Brazil, starting with Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Also in April, the French company had announced the deployment of a dedicated IoT network in Oman in partnership with local carrier Omantel, as well as network deployments in Australia and New Zealand.
In February 2015, Sigfox had a round of funding that brought in $115 million. Investment came from NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom and Telefonica. GDFSuez, Air Liquide and Eutelsat also invested in the Sigfox funding round.
Sigfox said that it will use the new financing to expand its operations across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
