Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) announced that its enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) service, machineQ, has activated its LoRaWAN IoT network in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now provides coverage in Cupertino, Fremont, Hayward, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Oakland, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale.
Startups and developers in the region building enterprise-grade IoT solutions can now connect to the cloud using the machineQ IoT network. The machineQ network is built using the LoRaWAN wireless protocol, which is currently being used by 80+ carriers in 43 countries around the globe. LoRaWAN-based technology is designed to cut costs due to lower power requirements, provide long-range coverage, and penetrate hard-to-reach places like deep indoor and underground locations.
The machineQ service launched as a trial in 2016 and was expanded last July. Its customers include a range of industries including asset tracking, geo-location, water metering, facilities management and pest control. MachineQ is also providing LoRaWAN-based wireless connectivity in the agriculture, energy, retail and smart cities industries.
"It was a no brainer to deliver a dense IoT network in the Bay Area, the epicenter of IoT, because it reduces costs for developers and startups in the region and opens up new business cases for the solutions they are building," said Alex Khorram, general manager for machineQ. "The early success we've had working with solution providers reinforces that there is a need for low-power, cost-effective technologies such as LoRaWAN in the rapidly growing enterprise IoT space here in the U.S. and beyond."
"With the LoRaWAN network in San Francisco, developers are able to create long-range, low power IoT applications that will provide its community with smarter services," said Marc Pegulu, vice president and general manager of Semtech's (NASDAQ:SMTC) Wireless and Sensing Products Group. "Semtech's LoRa Technology and machineQ's connectivity are proven and established IoT solutions that allows enterprises to develop diverse use cases to solve daily challenges in global cities."
Beyond the Bay area, machineQ is deploying its LoRaWAN-based network in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Miami, Minneapolis, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington DC in 2018.