The Sigfox's receivership beginning of this year reminds us how important are strategic choices to ensure the robustness of a monitoring solution.
At BroodMinder, we are committed with cellular networks (ie. 3G and 4G). Why? Because it is the technology of choice if you want to offer a borderless system that can work anywhere on earth.
It is also a robust solution that does not require to be married with a single provider. In France 4 networks (Orange, SFR, Bouygues and Free) provide the best coverage. This situation is equivalent in many other countries. Those networks are widely used and improving day by day, driven by an infinite number of needs.
The other essential aspect, very practical, is the simplicity to check the network coverage. Any smartphone can be used to check network availability in a tap. It is far from being as simple with Sigfox where you need a specific tester.
It is true that 4G can have slightly higher energy consumption than Sigfox and LoRa technologies. However, great progress has been, and is still being, made to make them more efficient. With a good sizing of the system (with an autonomous Cell Hub centralizing the transmission function in the yard, for example) that disadvantage is avoided.
In the case of Sigfox there is another important detail: All its competitors, use networks based on LoRaWan Technology. And LoRaWan wins over Sigfox for the reason that it is an open source technology. At BroodMinder we are also believing in open source / open hardware tools. It is a strong commitment. Not just for "faith", but because of its robustness.
END NOTE: Low-speed, low-power network startup Sigfox was eventually taken over by its operator in Asia, UnaBiz, in April 2022.
