Sigfox
 | |
Native name | SIGFOX |
|---|---|
| Company type | Société Anonyme |
| Industry | Wireless services |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founders | Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet |
| Headquarters | Labège, near Toulouse , |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Ludovic le Moan, CEO; Anne Lauvergeon, Chairman; Christophe Fourtet, Scientific Director |
| Services | IoT |
| Revenue | €50 million[1] (2017) |
Number of employees | 375 (04/2017) |
| Website | www |
Sigfox 0G technology is a global Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) networking protocol founded in 2010[2] and adopted by 70+ Sigfox 0G Network Operators globally. This wireless network was designed to connect low-power objects such as electricity meters securely, at low-cost, emitting small amounts of data.
Sigfox is based in Labège near Toulouse, France, and once had over 375 employees in Madrid, San Francisco, Sydney and Paris.[3][4]
The former Sigfox entity had raised more than $300 million from investors that included Salesforce, Intel, Samsung, NTT, SK Telecom, energy groups Total and Air Liquide. In November 2016 Sigfox was valued at around €600 million. In January 2022 it filed for bankruptcy.[5]
In April 2022 Singapore-based IoT company UnaBiz acquired the Sigfox 0G technology and its French network operations for a reported €25 million ($27m).[6]
A year later, US semiconductor company Semtech, owner of the LoRa physical-radio layer technology (and licensor of hardware running the LoRaWAN transmission layer network protocol), integrated Sigfox into its flagship LoRa-based hardware and software platforms, marking a seismic turnaround for Sigfox, the original pioneer technology in the LPWAN space. [7]
Technology
Sigfox employs differential binary phase-shift keying (DBPSK) and Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) over the Short-range device band of 868 MHz in Europe, and the Industrial, Scientific and Medical radio band of 902 MHz in the US. It utilizes a wide-reaching signal that passes freely through solid objects, called "Ultra Narrowband" and requires little energy, being termed a "low-power wide-area network" (LPWAN). The network is based on one-hop star topology and requires a mobile operator to carry the generated traffic.[8] The signal can also be used to easily cover large areas and to reach underground objects.[9] As of November 2024, the Sigfox 0G global network has covered a total of 5.8 million square kilometers in a total of 75 countries with 1.3 billion of the world population reached.[10]
Sigfox has partnered with a number of firms in the LPWAN industry such as Texas Instruments, Silicon Labs and ON Semiconductor. The ISM radio bands support limited bidirectional communication. The existing standard for Sigfox communications supports up to 140 uplink messages a day, each of which can carry a payload of 12 octets at a data rate of up to 100 bits per second.[11]
Upon acquisition, UnaBiz released the Sigfox device library code for connected objects to the public and IoT development community to drive technology interoperability and the unification of LPWANs in the IoT industry. [12] The developer community can now visit the 0G technology’s Github page and Build to access the new device library codes and related documentation.
Coverage
| Continent | Country | Provider |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | Kenya | Liquid Telecom |
| Africa | Mauritius | io connect |
| Africa | Mayotte | io connect |
| Africa | Réunion | io connect |
| Africa | South Africa | Sigfox South Africa |
| Africa | Tunisia | IoT Tunisia |
| Asia | Hong Kong | Thinxtra |
| Asia | Iran | Parsnet |
| Asia | Japan | Kyocera |
| Asia | Malaysia | Xperanti |
| Asia | Oman | Momkin |
| Asia | Singapore | UnaBiz |
| Asia | South Korea | Amotech |
| Asia | Taiwan | UnaBiz |
| Asia | Thailand | Things on Net |
| Asia | United Arab Emirates | iWire |
| Europe | Austria | Heliot IoT |
| Europe | Belgium | Citymesh |
| Europe | Croatia | IoT Net |
| Europe | Czech Republic | SimpleCell Networks |
| Europe | Denmark | IoT Denmark A/S |
| Europe | Estonia | Connected Baltics |
| Europe | Finland | Connected Finland |
| Europe | France | Sigfox |
| Europe | Germany | Sigfox |
| Europe | Hungary | Omnicell IoTnet |
| Europe | Ireland | VT |
| Europe | Italy | NetTrotter |
| Europe | Liechtenstein | Heliot IoT |
| Europe | Luxembourg | RMS |
| Europe | Malta | IoT Malta |
| Europe | Netherlands | Hyrde |
| Europe | Norway | IoT Norway |
| Europe | Poland | Sigfox Poland |
| Europe | Portugal | Sigfox |
| Europe | Romania | Simple IoT |
| Europe | Slovakia | SimpleCell Networks |
| Europe | Spain | Sigfox |
| Europe | Sweden | IoT Sweden |
| Europe | Switzerland | Heliot IoT |
| Europe | Turkey | UNA IoT |
| Europe | Ukraine | Utilix.one |
| Europe | United Kingdom | WND Group |
| North America | Costa Rica | WND Group |
| North America | El Salvador | WND Group |
| North America | Guadeloupe | IDEO Caraïbes |
| North America | Martinique | IDEO Caraïbes |
| North America | Mexico | WND Group |
| North America | Panama | WND Group |
| North America | United States | Sigfox |
| Oceania | Australia | Thinxtra |
| Oceania | French Polynesia | VITI |
| Oceania | New Caledonia | iSMAC-NC |
| Oceania | New Zealand | Thinxtra |
| South America | Argentina | WND Group |
| South America | Brazil | WND Group |
| South America | Chile | WND Group |
| South America | Colombia | WND Group |
| South America | Ecuador | WND Group |
| South America | French Guiana | IDEO Caraïbes |
References
- ^ "Sigfox presents 2017 results and 2018 roadmap". Sigfox. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
- ^ "Our Story | Sigfox". Sigfox. 2020.
- ^ "Residents". Partech Shaker. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ^ Renault, Enguérand (2014-07-09). "Le Shaker, une fabrique à start-up, s'installe au cœur de Paris". Le Figaro. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ^ "Sigfox, the French IoT startup that had raised more than $300M, files for bankruptcy protection as it seeks a buyer". Techcrunch.com. Techcrunch. 27 January 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ "Sigfox's parent company UnaBiz raises another $25 million in Series B round extension". datacenterdynamics.com. datacenterdynamics. 8 December 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ "LoRa and Sigfox tie the knot – Semtech and Unabiz shake on historic IoT coalition". 2023-07-25. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
- ^ Giedre Dregvaite; Robertas Damasevicius (30 October 2016). Information and Software Technologies: 22nd International Conference, ICIST 2016, Druskininkai, Lithuania, October 13-15, 2016, Proceedings. Springer. pp. 665–. ISBN 978-3-319-46254-7.
- ^ Khaldoun Al Agha; Guy Pujolle; Tara Ali Yahiya (17 August 2016). Mobile and Wireless Networks. Wiley. pp. 241–. ISBN 978-1-119-00755-5.
- ^ "Our Story | Sigfox". Sigfox. 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
- ^ Augustin, Aloÿs; Yi, Jiazi; Clausen, Thomas; Townsley, William Mark (2016-09-09). Kim, Dongkyun (ed.). "A Study of LoRa: Long Range & Low Power Networks for the Internet of Things". Sensors. 16 (9): 2–3. Bibcode:2016Senso..16.1466A. doi:10.3390/s16091466. PMC 5038744. PMID 27618064.
- ^ "UnaBiz puts Sigfox device library in public domain". IoT M2M Council. Retrieved 2025-02-10.