SIGFOX Extends It’s Global IoT Network to Taiwan; Reaches It’s 23rd Country
-Write By Sree Venkitesh
SIGFOX, the world’s leading provider of dedicated communications
service for the Internet of Things (IoT), and UnaBiz, an IoT network
operator in Asia, joined French and Taiwanese officials announcing
creation of a global Internet of Things testbed in Taiwan. With the
SIGFOX IoT network as its centerpiece, the testbed will provide global
IoT connectivity to Taiwan’s huge electronics manufacturing industry and
demonstrate multiple applications and use cases.
The Aug. 1 announcement came at a launch event in Taipei with C.K.
Lee, Taiwan’s minister of economy; Benoit Guidée, director of the French
Office in Taipei; SIGFOX CEO Ludovic Le Moan; UnaBiz CEO Henri Bong and
a panel of industry and government experts, including Chaney Ho,
Advantech president; Wei-Bin Lee, CIO of Taipei City, and Ming-Whei
Feng, dean of the Smart Network System Institute of the Institute for
Information Industry.
In addition to supporting Taiwan’s goal of becoming the “Silicon
Valley of Asia,” where new and disruptive technologies thrive, the
nationwide network and testbed will also provide to SIGFOX the benefits
of Taiwanese design and manufacturing expertise as it scales globally,
Guidée said. Taiwan’s large high-technology manufacturing sector has
extensive experience in developing high-quality products at competitive
prices.
“SIGFOX is not only one of the best ambassadors of La French Tech
spirit, it is also a large contributor to the entrepreneurship ecosystem
in France through its European IoT Innovation Hub: the IoT Valley,”
Guidée said. “By bridging the IoT Valley with Taiwan design and
manufacturing capabilities, I am convinced that France and Taiwan have a
great opportunity to shape together the future of the IoT in the world.
France is thus inviting Taiwan to use SIGFOX as a gateway into a global
market and, by doing so, simplifying the integration and accelerating
the go-to-market strategy.”
UnaBiz, which announced only three weeks ago a strategic partnership
with ENGIE and SIGFOX to deploy the network in Singapore, will lead the
network deployment in Taiwan, which is expected to have nationwide
coverage in early 2018. “This extension to Taiwan is key in our regional
development strategy, because Taiwan has the largest ecosystem of
devices and solutions to accelerate the adoption of IoT use cases
globally,” said Henri Bong, CEO of UnaBiz.
With this rollout, Taiwan will be the 23rd country globally, the
second in Asia and the fourth country in the Asia Pacific region to have
SIGFOX’s two-way IoT coverage, which provides low-cost,
energy-efficient connectivity for countless devices that will make up
the Internet of Things.
Taiwan’s six largest cities or districts, containing half the
country’s population of 23.5 million, will have coverage by mid-2017.
The rapid rollout in all countries is facilitated by the fact that
SIGFOX’s infrastructure is far lighter than traditional wireless network
infrastructure.
“This collaboration between Taiwanese electronics companies, which are
among the most competitive and efficient in the world, and SIGFOX will
strengthen the SIGFOX ecosystem as it speeds learning and the
implementation of IoT design and use cases,” Le Moan said. “It also
will provide demonstrations of how SIGFOX’s seamless IoT network can
foster unprecedented industrial manufacturing efficiencies that could
benefit companies everywhere.”
“We will go to work immediately to create strong partnerships with
key players in the local ecosystem along the whole IoT value chain, from
silicon vendors to design houses and device manufacturers,” said Bong.
“This dynamic process will spark entrepreneurial and creative responses
for making the IoT come alive. As part of that process, UnaBiz will
leverage on the Taiwanese ecosystem to complement SIGFOX’s global
ecosystem of partners in order to offer the largest catalogue of IoT
devices worldwide.”
