Senet, which claims to be the first and only North American provider of public low-power wide area networks using the LoRaWAN technology, has added two new microcells as part of its network as a service offering, saying they will enable LoRaWAN coverage to be provided at a fraction of the cost of its current macrocells.
“The eight channel microcell solutions will augment Senet’s previous deployment of 64 channel macrocells significantly broadening coverage and enabling new applications,” the company said.
“Typically, whereas macrocells have to be deployed on towers at higher elevations requiring longer planning and implementation cycles, microcell solutions can be deployed in places and ways that are far less costly and can be brought to market in a much shorter time. … At a fraction of the cost of macrocell only deployments, it will now be possible to service many RoI driven applications across a variety of different verticals. This means that companies previously considering solutions with a private network can implement the same solution on our network at a fraction of the cost with proven reliability and scale.”
Senet is a member of the LoRa Alliance, the body co-ordinating development of LoRaWAN. It has sourced the microcells from two other alliance members MultiTech and Kerlink. Senet said it would use the microcells to accelerate its network footprint, which it expects to more than double by the end of 2016.
Senet announced in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it had more than 115,000 square miles (300,000 sq kms) of network coverage across the US with concentrations in the Northeast Midwest, and California, saying: “During 2016, network deployment continues at an aggressive pace, including deep coverage in innovation districts of greater Boston and San Francisco Bay area.”
In Australia National Narrowband Network Communications is rolling out a LoRaWAN network and by Meshed, which has installed a LoRaWAN network in Wollongong to which access is freely available.
