The French connectivity firm said a total 17 countries currently have nationwide support for internet of things
French internet of things (IoT) connectivity provider Sigfox now offers its non-standard connectivity in 36 countries following the addition of four new countries: Costa Rica, Tunisia, Croatia and Thailand.
Sigfox said Costa Rican operator Cognix will work with Latin American partner WND to deploy an network support for the internet of things in the Central American country. Additionally, IoT Net Adria will be responsible for the deployment in Croatia
The networks in Tunisia and Thailand will be deployed by IoT Tunisie and Platt Nera respectively.
“We are looking forward to collaborating with our new Sigfox operators to help their local ecosystems to seamlessly scale IoT solutions wherever the Sigfox network is present in the world,” Rodolphe Baronnet-Frugès, executive vice president of operators at Sigfox, said.
The French company said its operator partners have invested100 million euros ($117 million) have been invested by Sigfox operators to offer access to the Sigfox IoT services.
Sigfox also said a total of 60 countries will have access to the firm’s IoT connectivity services by the end of next year.
The countries where the Sigfox IoT network currently offers nationwide coverage include Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Luxemburg, Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Oman, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Taiwan and the Netherlands.
The firm also said Sigfox’s global network currently reaches 660 million people compared to 165 million last year.
In related news, Sigfox has announced a partnership with GCT Semiconductor, a designer and supplier of advanced 4G mobile semiconductor solutions. GCT’s integrated single chip GDM7243I will support LTE Category M1/NB1/EC-GSM and Sigfox wireless IoT connectivity.
Sigfox said several OEM customers are designing solutions using GCT’s GDM7243I SoC to develop various IoT devices for applications such as tracking, wearables, security, agriculture, healthcare, industrial, and consumer applications.
“GCT provides a single chip innovative solution that further proves that Sigfox and cellular (LTE Cat M1/NB1/EC-GSM) are complementary technologies by leveraging the best of both worlds. We look forward to a successful launch of the GDM7243I by Sigfox operators and mobile network operators worldwide,” Ludovic Le Moan, CEO of Sigfox, said.
