Telia Estonia has become the latest operator to back Sigfox as it looks to boost its Internet of Things offering with the technology.
The telco is working with Connected Baltics, a regional Sigfox operator, as it looks to offer “hundreds of thousands” of connections to enterprise and consumer customers.
Telia is also deploying NB-IoT, with projects in Norway using the technology for smart farming and smart parking networks.
Toomas Kärner, Telia’s IoT Area Manager, said: “The cooperation with Connected Baltics, a Sigfox network operator, makes it possible for Telia to start using Sigfox’s IoT communication technology in Telia’s IoT client solutions.
“By bringing together connectivity technologies, best device manufacturers, and hardware and software developers from Estonia and abroad, we would like to help our business customers succeed in their business and develop great services for residential customers.”
Kushtrim Xhakli, Founder of Connected Baltics, added: “Telia is the telecommunication leader in the Nordic-Baltic region, and this deal helps the entire ecosystem to choose a reliable IoT technology such as Sigfox when developing end-to-end IoT solutions, allowing them to integrate devices, data collection and management easily.”
In February, Sigfox announced its technology would be integrated into Telefónica’s managed connectivity platform, which would enable the likes of asset tracking and smart metering to enterprise customers.
Non-cellular low-power wide-area technology such as Sigfox has been predicted to grab market share in the short term and outpace operators’ own technologies like NB-IoT.