US public LoRaWAN operator Senet has struck a deal with IoT network and analytics software outfit Iota Communications (IotaComm) to deliver LoRaWAN connectivity and IoT solutions in both 915 MHz and 800 MHz spectrum. LoRaWAN operates in unlicensed 915 MHz spectrum by default; IotaComm holds its own spectrum at 800 MHz, licensed by the FCC in the US, and sells its own IoT solutions for buildings and cities to run at 915 MHz alongside.
The arrangement also covers IotaComm’s usage of Senet’s IoT platform for application and device management. Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania firm has agreed to join Senet’s expanding LoRaWAN crossover low-power wide-area (LPWA) network, as a Senet radio access network (RAN) operator and an LPWA virtual network (LVN) participant. The pair said they are collaborating to create a new LoRaWAN service using the 800 MHz licensed spectrum.
IotaComm provides “end-to-end” IoT solutions (gateways, sensors, airtime, platform, applications) to make the built environment smarter (“smart buildings and smart cities”). Its Delphi360 data analytics platform is at the heart of its offer; its FCC-licensed 800 MHz spectrum holding gives it an angle, the logic goes, to enable higher “carrier-grade” service for critical infrastructure applications, such as smart metering and predictive maintenance.
The company claims 140-odd tower sites in the US, with plans for 150 new LoRaWAN gateways by 2023. Its 800 MHz licence is “enough… to cover about 90 percent of the US”, it reckons. It is developing “multi-access gateways”, to double-up 800 MHz and 915 MHz bandwidth, to deliver a “premium smart building connectivity offering”. So says a press note about the Senet tie-up – which will help to create the “largest carrier-grade” IoT network in the US, it said
IotaComm will use Senet’s LoRaWAN core network server (LNS) platform to manage both its public and private LoRaWAN networks at 800 MHz. Its move to open its LoRaWAN gateways to Senet’s LVN partners, so their customers’s IoT devices can roam onto extended LoRaWAN infrastructure in the US, reinforces the sense that Senet has established itself as a genuine innovator in the developing IoT market.
It already has notable LVN-style deals with Helium (Nova Labs), the crypto-incentivised infrastructure-building scheme that has boosted the global public LoRaWAN project (and since sought to repeat the trick with shared 5G infrastructure in the CBRS band), and with satellite LoRaWAN providers, via Wyld Networks and Eutelsat, plus a number of others for straight international terrestrial roaming. Senet’s record looks significant for the stop-start IoT market, and its stated ambition to develop and popularise new LoRaWAN solutions on shared 800 MHz infrastructure with IotaComm looks like another move, potentially, to take the game away from the cellular IoT market.
A statement from Senet said: “IotaComm is contributing to the rapid expansion of public carrier-grade LoRaWAN networks across the US, and generating new IoT services revenue streams. Unique to the Senet LVN are innovative business models designed to deliver unified LoRaWAN connectivity without the need for roaming contracts and the opportunity for participants, like IotaComm, to share in the revenue generated by all end devices connecting to the gateways they’ve deployed regardless of end customer origin.”
Terrence DeFranco, president and chief executive at IotaComm, said: “We’re honoured to work alongside Senet in the quest to provide the wireless efficiency and flexibility that industries are requiring. This partnership fully supports our goals of building the largest national, carrier-grade LPWA network dedicated [for] IoT. Together with Senet’s network architecture expertise, we’ll deliver real-time data that results in high-value and actionable insights while filling an existing connectivity gap.”
Bruce Chatterley, chief executive at Senet, said: “Our partnership with IotaComm is another example of Senet leading the market through innovative technology and unique business models that allow users to improve operations and address sustainability goals. IotaComm brings significant value and differentiation to our portfolio of RAN providers and LVN partners, and we look forward to collaborating to deliver groundbreaking network solutions to the commercial building energy management and facility operation markets.”
