Sigfox has announced an Internet of Things (IoT) test bed in Taiwan to provide connectivity to the nation’s electronics manufacturing industry.
IoT operator UnaBiz will lead the deployment in Taiwan. The network is expect to achieve national coverage by early 2018, with the country’s six largest districts, containing half its population of 23.5 million, scheduled to have coverage by the middle of next year.
UnaBiz announced a partnership with Sigfox and French multinational electric utility last month to deploy an IoT network in Singapore.
Sigfox has already deployed two-way IoT coverage, providing low-cost and energy-efficient connectivity for large numbers of IoT devices, to 23 countries globally. Taiwan is the second in Asia to take its technology, and the fourth in the wider Asia Pacific region.
Sigfox said its entry in Taiwan will enable it to test multiple applications and use cases, and also afford it the opportunity to use Taiwanese design and manufacturing expertise.
Ludovic Le Moan, CEO of Sigfox, said: “This collaboration between Taiwanese electronics companies and Sigfox will strengthen the Sigfox ecosystem as it speeds learning and the implementation of IoT design and use cases. It also will provide demonstrations of how Sigfox’s IoT network can foster unprecedented industrial manufacturing efficiencies that could benefit companies everywhere.”
Henri Bong, CEO of UnaBiz, said: “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.”
Last month, a report by ABI Research said the IoT will help boost the number of active wireless connected devices to 47 billion by 2021.
Sigfox debuted in Ireland in July with IoT infrastructure and solutions provider VT Networks, targeting one million connected IoT devices in the country by 2017.