South Korea has launched its first commercial, low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) network. SK Telecom said they have concluded the nationwide deployment of Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) based on LoRa technology across the country.
According to SK Telecom, it finished building LoRaWAN across the country by end of June, six months earlier than its initial schedule, covering 99 percent of the population. By securing both nationwide LTE-M and LoRaWAN, which are two main pillars of the IoT network, SK Telecom said that it is now fully ready to create valuable business opportunities in the IoT era. The company had completed nationwide LTE-M rollout in March, 2016.
The company will invest a total of KRW 100 billion by the end of 2017. It expects these efforts to lead to rapid expansion of the IoT industry by connecting over 4 million things to its IoT-dedicated networks by the end of 2017.
SIGFOX Extends its IoT Network to Mexico
SIGFOX, a provider of dedicated communications service for the Internet of Things (IoT), extended SIGFOX’s network across Latin America, and IotNet Mexico said this week that they have launched the network’s deployment in Mexico.
IotNet Mexico, the exclusive SIGFOX Network Operator (SNO) in the country, will also focus initially on applications for utilities such as remote metering for water, gas and residential electricity.
IotNet Mexico is partnering with WND to provide SIGFOX’s connectivity throughout Mexico. WND, founded by Chris Bataillard, an entrepreneur and active founder, investor and advisor at several telecommunications and high-tech companies, kicked off the Latin America expansion with Brazil only two months ago.
“The SIGFOX network will help unlock the promise of the Internet of Things across Mexico, because it is simple, fast and affordable to connect millions of devices that will share their data over multiple applications,” said Bataillard.
