Unabiz has announced yet another deal in its unremitting pursuit of a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) mashup, as it seeks to add the telegram-splitting ultra-narrowband (TS-UNB) standard, commercialised in the the Johnny-come-lately MIOTY technology, to its developing roster of hybrid Sigfox and LoRaWAN solutions – while also selling some cellular IoT on the side. Having signed a flurry of cooperation deals with the LoRaWAN crowd since its acquisition of Sigfox last year, the Singapore-based firm is now working with LoRaWAN and MIOTY outfit LORIOT.
Swiss firm LORIOT sells LoRaWAN and MIOTY solutions in public and private network deployments to network operators, public administrations, and ‘blue-chip’ enterprises. It is working with Unabiz to combine its twin LPWAN capabilities into newly integrated multi-protocol IoT solutions, also running Sigfox. The addition of MIOTY, which emerged from the ETSI-specified TS-UNB standard in 2018, is new; Unabiz has already signed with The Things Industries (TTI) and with Senet, key protagonists on the LoRaWAN scene, to make good on its talk of a ‘unified LPWAN world’.
Specifically, the two parties said the “technical convergence” will see the integration of LORIOT’s hybrid network management system, called Hummingbird, and Unabiz’s middleware IoT data management platform, called UnaConnect, to “develop a catalogue of products and services”. This is not the quite same as developing multi-radio LPWAN hardware, of course, but it establishes a way for enterprises to start to vanish the connectivity silos that have hobbled the wide-area IoT sector – and starts to unite these disparate IoT tribes, which have, for years, been at loggerheads about their technical supremacy, geographical reach, and various business models.
Even MIOTY launched in the LPWAN market in 2019 firing broadsides at LoRaWAN, and at to a lesser extent at Sigfox – which is, arguably, the original pioneer tech in the LPWAN space, but whose troubles, at the time, made it an easier target, and prompted its urgent quest to pioneer closer working relationships with rivals. In the end, the three technologies have, arguably, carved slightly different markets, with Sigfox well-deployed for wider-area tracking, MIOTY pitched squarely for private IoT in harder-nosed industrial climes, and LoRaWAN straddling both worlds, but finding notable success in IoT solutions for the ‘built environment’ – in buildings and venues.
Static water and gas metering is the main crossover discipline. It might be noted, as well, that Unabiz is busily developing cellular-based IoT solutions, based on NB-IoT and LTE-M, as well – as it seeks to establish itself, perhaps most significantly, as a broad IoT production house, and not just the parent of Sigfox. Apart from the “technical collaboration”, Unabiz said it will support Switzerland-based LORIOT in the production of “industrial IoT solutions powered by LoRaWAN as well as other protocols used by LORIOT’s clients around the world”.
Unabiz clients will gain access to LORIOT’s LoRaWAN roaming hub to extend network coverage and density – giving access to LORIOT’s “global LoRaWAN public infrastructure [and] third-party networks”. This part of the deal follows in line with Unabiz’s tie-ups with TTI and Senet. Henri Bong, chief executive at Unabiz said: “This partnership demonstrates the positive outcome for customers and the market when LPWAN service providers unite.”
A statement added: “The multi-protocol approach provides… clients with more connectivity options, and greater flexibility when it comes to increasing device density. [It allows] clients to leverage massive IoT in all verticals and use cases, simplifying device integration, securing the delivery of aggregated data to multiple end-platforms, and making their IoT more efficient, scalable and cost-effective.”
Julian Studer, chief executive at LORIOT, said: “Together, we will be able to offer customers higher flexibility and simplicity, helping them generate true value in their industries on a large scale. We are thrilled to collaborate with Unabiz to provide our customers with the best of both worlds in terms of multi-protocol IoT solutions… We can bring a better IoT experience to the market, addressing the growing demand for Massive IoT deployments.”
