A preliminary market battle has been brewing over the past year between technologies to connect IoT devices via wireless wide area networks. These cellular-type networks allow very low power battery devices to transmit small amounts of data over several miles, a solution highly suitable to many types of IoT devices such weather sensors and smart meters. Entrants in this market include Sigfox, LoRa, and Neul. (In addition, standards organization IEEE is developing the 802.11ah wireless networking protocol for distances up to a kilometer.)
Sigfox announced on June 15 that Samsung’s Artik IoT platform would integrate Sigfox support. Also, noted in the press release, but given less attention, was that Samsung’s venture capital arm is investing in Sigfox. The size of the investment was not disclosed. (See Sigfox press release here.) In February of 2015, Sigfox announced that it had secured from a variety of venture capital firms an investment round totaling $115M, reportedly the largest single VC investment round ever in France, Sigfox’s home country.
Thus far, Sigfox has been the only long-range low-power wireless solution already deployed in commercial operations, with several hundred thousand devices connected. It has networks in place in France, as well as in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, parts of the UK, and a number of cities around the world, most recently, in the San Francisco Bay area of the US.
LoRa—developed by Semtech—has the backing of IBM, Cisco, and Microchip among the members of the LoRa Alliance, and its initial deployments are imminent.
UK-based Neul is still in its demonstration phase, but the company was acquired for 15M British Pounds in September 2014 by Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei.
VDC won’t attempt here to compare the relative technical merits of these long-range low-power wireless systems, but from a market standpoint, it is clear that Sigfox is leading the pack. And it’s tempting to think that an investment by Samsung will propel Sigfox into an insurmountable lead. But we’re not yet ready to draw that conclusion. Some points for consideration:
In the meantime, Samsung’s investment positions Sigfox with a larger lead in the race for long-range low-power wireless networks. But it’s a long way to the finish line. View the 2017 IoT & Embedded Technology Research Outline to learn more.