SIGFOX Implements Networks in Russia and the Netherlands

By Calvin Azuri, TMCnet Contributor

SIGFOX has commemorated its first year as a provider of cellular low-bandwidth network by organizing an event for all its stakeholders on June 5 in Paris. At the event, the Internet of Things (IoT) operator unveiled the initial steps in the global implementation of its network.

SIGFOX’s cellular low-bandwidth network has been developed especially for Machine to Machine communications and the Internet of Things. Nearly 150 well-known stakeholders in the community from 10 countries were present at the SIGFOX event, where the operator revealed plans of extending its network to Russia and the Netherlands. SIGFOX also revealed that the organization had signed two SNO or Sigfox Network Operator agreements.

SIGFOX, in association with AEREA, will implement the network in the Netherlands, which is expected to offer complete coverage in the country by late 2013. The implementation in Russia is expected to commence this year, and will cover Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Ludovic Le Moan, CEO of SIGFOX, has been aiming to offer coverage in 60 countries in five years by entering into strategic associations. As per Machina Research, the majority of objects that connect via the Internet have sparing connectivity requirements.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, SIGFOX conducted four round tables, where representatives from the United States, China, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Israel, Ireland and Spain were present.

In a statement, Stéphane Nègre, CEO of Intel (News - Alert) France, said, "The network's cost is not a value in itself, since all that matters is what it can connect. Taking into account the outstanding economic performance of the SIGFOX network, which combines extremely low cost and the ability to connect billions of objects, essentially this means that SIGFOX will release significant value inherent in applications."

Silicon vendors and a board of executives from Silicon Labs, Intel, Semtech, ATMEL, Energy Micro and CEA-LETI were present at the first round table. Another round table was conducted among infrastructure operators like TDF and Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert). Consumer and industrial usages of IoT and the SIGFOX network were discussed at the other round tables, which included representatives from Schneider, Hager, Xerox, SEB, Traqueur, Polier Water, Covéa, World Sensing Net China, Digital Enterprise Greenwich and Living PlanIT.

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