Cable operator Comcast announced the availability of its LoRaWAN IoT network in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.
IoT coverage is available in major technology hubs including; Cupertino, Fremont, Hayward, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Oakland, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale.
Comcast business team said start-ups and developers building enterprise IoT solutions can connect to the cloud using the machineQ IoT network. Comcast engineers have built the machineQ network using the LoRaWAN technology.
The US-based cable operator said 80 plus telecom carriers in 43 countries are currently using the LoRaWAN technology for their IoT business. Comcast is relying on Semtech’s LoRa Technology.
LoRaWAN-based technology cuts costs due to lower power requirements, provides long-range coverage, and can penetrate hard to reach places like deep indoor and underground locations as compared with traditional wireless networks.
machineQ recently announced customers — across industries including asset tracking, geo-location, water metering, facilities management and pest control — for leveraging machineQ as their LoRaWAN-based wireless connectivity platform.
Santa Rosa, California-based PNI Sensor, which is one of the clients of Comcast, is building solutions for its clients using machineQ LoRa-based network. PNI’s PlacePod smart parking solution provides real-time vehicle detection and location of available parking spaces for on-street and off-street public and private parking management.
“Cities utilize real-time parking data from PlacePod smart parking sensors to make it easier for drivers to find parking,” said Robin Stoecker, director of marketing at PNI Sensor.
Cities can utilize information from parking sensors and other connected IoT devices by using machineQ’s LPWAN service.
“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 growing enterprise IoT space in the U.S,” Alex Khorram, general manager for machineQ, said.
Comcast said MachineQ is providing LoRaWAN-based wireless connectivity for solutions providers in the agriculture, energy, retail, and smart cities industries as well.
