April 19, Hong Kong | The most important gathering in the Sigfox circle, are you coming?

In the past two years, LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) has been an extremely hot topic in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry. This technology, capable of covering and connecting IoT node devices operating with extremely low power consumption within a range of several kilometers to tens of kilometers and aggregating data to the cloud, is considered to have broad application prospects. Because of this, various LPWAN technologies have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, vying for market share. Sigfox is one of the most eye-catching among them.

Sigfox, a French company founded in 2009, can be considered one of the earliest evangelists of the LPWAN concept. Their vision is to build a wireless wide area network that is completely independent of existing wireless cellular networks, providing low-speed connectivity for low-power sensing devices.

The Sigfox network operates in unlicensed frequency bands below 1 GHz, employing UNB technology. Sigfox network devices send 140 messages per day, each message being 12 bytes (96 bits), with a wireless throughput of 100 bps. Therefore, power consumption is only 50-100 microwatts, and the chip cost for such devices can even be less than $1. In terms of coverage, Sigfox aims to cover up to 1000 kilometers, with each base station capable of handling 1 million objects. Based on this calculation, covering the entire United States would require only 10,000 base stations, resulting in relatively low network construction and maintenance costs. These characteristics of wide coverage, low power consumption, low data rate, and low cost allow for applications in home automation, remote meter reading, healthcare, transportation, retail, remote monitoring, and security.

After several years of development, by the end of 2017, Sigfox had covered 3.8 million square kilometers in 45 countries and regions, connected 2.5 million devices, and served 803 million users; by the end of 2018, Sigfox aimed to cover 60 countries and regions, connect 6 million devices, and serve 1 billion users.

Figure 1. Global network coverage map of Sigfox. Blue represents completed and operational networks, and purple represents networks under construction. (Image source: Sigfox)

Looking at Sigfox's global network coverage, Asia is clearly the next key regional market for expansion. In fact, as of the end of last year, Malaysia and South Korea were already among the Asian countries added to Sigfox's network coverage. In China, in January 2018, Sigfox signed a strategic cooperation agreement with remote care solutions company Senioradom to jointly develop the Chinese market, planning to deploy Sigfox-based elderly care solutions in 20 major Chinese cities, including Chengdu, over the next year. This is seen by the industry as a prelude to Sigfox's "landing" in China.

On April 19th, the "2018 Sigfox Forum," hosted by Avnet, was held as scheduled at the Hong Kong Science Park. Organizing such a gathering of the Sigfox ecosystem in Asia at this time, where everyone can look forward to future opportunities and jointly address potential challenges, is certainly timely.

The agenda for the entire day's event shows that representatives from Sigfox, experts from industry organizations, and manufacturers from all parts of the Sigfox ecosystem will be present, all looking forward to a meaningful exchange.

For registration or more information, please contact us.

Please send an email to SDASIA@avnet.com.

From Sigfox's business model, Sigfox owns all the technology, from back-end data and cloud services to terminal software, and is basically open in the terminal device market. This model of "not making money from hardware but selling software and network services" has also provided room for many chip and solution companies, as well as other partners, to operate, thus gradually forming an open ecosystem to support the expansion of networks and businesses.

This business model also presents new challenges for the technology suppliers involved: to provide customers with comprehensive Sigfox solutions, they not only need end-to-end IoT solution and application development capabilities, but also the ability to provide customers with more complete ecosystem resource support. Taking Avnet as an example, in the IoT era, the company's positioning has shifted from a "component distribution + technology solutions" service provider to an "enabler" integrating the entire IoT industry chain, in which Avnet plays the role of a resource hub (as shown in Figure 2).

Figure 2 shows that in the era of the Internet of Things, Avnet has become an enabler of the entire ecosystem.

From the perspective of customers who need to deploy Sigfox networks, finding such a comprehensive partner will obviously be much more efficient, which is especially crucial for the LPWAN market, which is in the early stages of market fragmentation.

Figure 3 shows that Avnet has already connected with many high-quality industry resources in the Sigfox field.

This industry trend is also reflected in the agenda of the "2018 Sigfox Forum". Through Avnet's meticulous organization, the event will not only provide you with access to the latest Sigfox technologies and solutions, but also offer an opportunity for resource exchange and interaction with all aspects of the Sigfox ecosystem. Furthermore, through this event, you will have the chance to become a member of the future Sigfox ecosystem, working with partners to put innovative ideas into practice and jointly create IoT business opportunities.

Intrigued? Remember, April 19th, at the "2018 Sigfox Forum" in Hong Kong Science Park. We look forward to seeing you at this most important gathering in the Sigfox community! (For registration or more information, please email SDASIA@avnet.com)