IoT comes to Rome as Unidata deploys LoRa

Unidata’s LPWAN, based on the standardised LoRaWAN specification, is being deployed initially in Rome and other municipalities in the Lazio region of Italy, which is home to nearly six million people and where it already has extensive fiber optic networks and radio infrastructure. Unidata will roll out additional networks starting in select municipalities in Rome throughout 2016 with plans to cover the entire city by 2017. LoRaWAN is a specification based on Semtech’s LoRa technology that is standardised by the LoRa Alliance and widely used in smart metering, smarty city, smart building, agriculture and supply chain management applications throughout the world.

Unidata’s LoRa Lab will act as a hub for companies, researchers and others to learn about IoT applications and services and create unique and innovative solutions based on LoRaWAN.

“We’re pleased to announce Unidata’s LoRa-based network rollout and LoRa Lab in Rome,” said Marc Pegulu, Vice President and General Manager of Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Product Group. “By adopting LoRaWAN technology and building a hub for LoRa, Unidata is helping to ensure compatibility with a wide range of IoT solutions and will further enhance our community of LoRa users.”

Renato Brunetti, President of Unidata said, "The new smart cities and territories are in need of technological infrastructures for the IoT that will become the new digital highways of the future IT services. According to our needs at Unidata, LoRaWAN is the most appropriate technology in terms of sustainability and effectiveness to respond to this ambitious goal.”

Semtech’s LoRaWAN technology platform is a comprehensive solution for low power, long-range connectivity, which is essential for LPWANs supporting IoT applications. It offers deep penetrability, secure connectivity, long battery lifetime and streamlined implementation for simple network rollout, as well as integration into existing infrastructure.