Senet selects LoRa for IoT network

Senet deployed the network to serve customers of its EnerTrac subsidiary, allowing them to optimise propane and heating fuel delivery and inventory. The company is now opening the network to other IoT application verticals such as agriculture, smart parking, building management, supply chain management, water metering, water leak detection, industrial asset tracking and healthcare. Senet offers low-cost connectivity in existing deployed areas and deploys/manages the networks in other areas that desire LPWAN connectivity.

An application developed for the Senet network is also compatible in other LoRaWAN networks deployed in Canada, South America, Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore and most other South East Asia countries that are utilising the same frequency band for LPWAN. Six other major telecomms companies have announced nationwide LoRa network deployments.  

LoRa RF technology enables long-range, low-power connectivity that previously had been unrealisable. Competing short-range technology requires multiple repeaters and in-depth infrastructure to achieve wide coverage and has limited network capacity to be able to connect a high volume of nodes, making the return on investment unattractive for many applications and limiting deployments. LoRa solves these limitations and enables simple IoT connectivity. A single LoRa base station can connect to sensors over 15 miles away in rural environments, and in dense city environments it has deep penetration capability for indoor coverage. 

Both Senet and Semtech are active members in the LoRa Alliance, which is one of the fastest growing alliances with over 80 members since its launch in March 2015. The goal of the LoRa Alliance is to standardise LPWAN and create a large ecosystem to scale IoT and M2M applications.

“We plan to rapidly scale our deployment in North America with more than 200 base stations in 2015 and aggressive goals for deployment in 2016,” said George Dannecker, CEO, Senet. 

“Senet is a proven pioneer for LPWAN with more area deployed than any other provider in North America,” commented Marc Pegulu, General Manager of Wireless and Sensing Division, Semtech. “We are very excited about the volume of devices that are connecting to the Senet network.”