The IoT connectivity provider aims to cover 60 countries with its technology by the end of the year
European firm Cellnex Telecom and Heliot, Sigfox’s operator in Switzerland, have signed an agreement to rollout what it claims to be the first internet of things (IoT) network in Switzerland. The deployment is planned for more than 350 Cellnex sites in Switzerland, with an initial expected coverage of 50% of the Swiss population, aiming to reach 90% in 2019.
The Swiss IoT network will be the second one rolled out by Cellnex using Sigfox technology. In 2015, Cellnex deployed an IoT network in Spain, with a national coverage of 93% of the population through more than 1,500 sites. More than 1 million devices are already connected and use the IoT network of Cellnex in Spain on a daily basis, providing water telemetry, security, waste management or tracking services, among others.
“Switzerland did not have a global IoT network, therefore the rollout of this network will also contribute to generating new business opportunities for Swiss companies through connectivity services,” said Peter Seiler, country manager of Cellnex in Switzerland.
Cellnex began operating in Switzerland in 2017, when it bought fellow infrastructure company Swiss Towers as part of a consortium comprising Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners and Swiss Life Asset Manager. It acquired almost 3,000 sites across Switzerland. The firm has operations in Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland.
Last month, French connectivity firm Sigfox announced it had expanded its global network to 45 countries.
The technology serves around 803 million people, covering 3.8 million square kilometers. Sigfox is targeting a reach of 60 countries and one billion people by the end of this year.
In September 2017, the French IoT specialist had launched a suite of new services for the provision of IoT connectivity with an emphasis on low-cost components to support manufacturing and supply chain operations.
Admiral Ivory is a simplified connectivity service which makes it possible to transform any short-range wireless device into a long-range IoT device based on a hardware component that costs of 20-cents.
Sigfox also announced a new offering for manufacturers looking to use devices globally, which means the devices can run in any part of the world. The new product, dubbed Sigfox Monarch, is a cognitive service that support connectivity worldwide by allowing IoT devices to recognize and automatically adapt to local communications standards.
Sigfox’s technology operates in unlicensed bands worldwide, with radio frequencies ranging from 862 MHz to 928 MHz. Using unlicensed bands enables devices to send their data to the cloud while using little power, at very low cost. Sigfox Monarch provides a radio recognition service enabling devices to manage the radio frequency changes, without any additional hardware such as GPS or Wi-Fi chipset.
