IoT CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS FEATURED ARTICLES

New On-Ramp CEO: Low-Power Wide Area Technology is the Best Match for IoT

By Paula Bernier
Executive Editor, TMC

John Horn (News - Alert) had his coming out party today as CEO of On-Ramp Wireless.

The former leader of RACO Wireless, which was recently acquired by KORE, was announced as On-Ramp’s new leader July 2. Today at IoT Evolution Expo he talked about On-Ramp’s value proposition and promised significant news next month at CTIA (News - Alert).

Cellular networks that underlie many IoT deployments today, he said, offer far more bandwidth than most of those applications require – so it’s like drinking from a fire hose. And the disparity between what IoT needs and what cellular delivers grows wider and wider as cellular network operators move from 2G and 3G networks to 4G LTE (News - Alert) and beyond, he said. That excess, he added, comes at a cost.

The costs include lower battery life for endpoints, high network infrastructure and spectrum investments, limited or non-existent coverage in remote areas, network sunsetting, and problems with signal penetration, to name just a few, he said. These cellular network challenges may all be worth it for smartphones and other manned devices, he indicated, but they signal that cellular is not the best match for IoT.

“The networks that were built on cellular technology were built for humans,” Horn commented. “There need to be networks that are built for machines.”

The better solution for IoT, he said, is low power wide area technology. It delivers at least 200 square miles per tower; allows for battery life up to 10 years; and enables On-Ramp Wireless – which owns all the IP, so controls the ecosystem – to ensure there will be no sunsetting, he said.

On-Ramp Wireless is providing connectivity for ELMAR, which is running a GE AMI solution to improve the efficiency of the power grid and leverage renewable energy sources on Aruba. Just eight access points cover the entire island. Horn said On-Ramp also is involved with WellAware in bringing connectivity to remote oilfields.