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Global connectivity provider SIGFOX, in conjunction with partners POST Luxembourg and RMS.lu, has announced Luxembourg is the eighth country to deploy its nationwide Internet of Things (IoT) network.
The Benelux nation, with a population of just over 500,000, follows Portugal, Belgium and Denmark, where plans were announced earlier this year. The network already operates in France, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.
SIGFOX claims its ultra narrow band (UNB) technology, alongside high-bandwidth cellular systems, provides economical, two-way transmission of smaller packets of data over long distances, thus making it ideal for IoT and machine to machine (M2M) implementations. The cities of Ettelbruck and Luxembourg City already have the dedicated IoT network in place, covering 30% of the country’s population. Nationwide coverage is expected by the end of this year.
Jean-Marie Spaus, director of POST Telecom S.A., explained how the two partner companies will work alongside Luxembourg businesses and developers to grow the country’s IoT ecosystem. “The SIGFOX network strongly complements our existing wireless broadband offer and allows us to provide efficient, low-cost connectivity for objects that are designed to send small messages on an intermittent, as-needed basis,” he said.
Rodolphe Baronnet-Fruges, SIGFOX EVP networks and operators, added: “This network deployment in Luxembourg clearly illustrates the advantages that SIGFOX brings to entrepreneurial companies like RMS.lu and to existing broadband cellular providers, which is great recognition from one of the most advanced countries in the IoT space.”
Elsewhere, latest figures from Juniper Research have revealed the total number of IoT-connected devices will reach 38.5 billion by 2020 – up from 13.4 billion currently. Juniper argues the bulk of this will come from the industrial and public services sectors, citing companies such as Michelin and John Deere who have transformed their modus operandi towards being service based companies through the use of IoT.
