Sigfox Launches Private Area Network, Enhances Geolocation, and Expands IoT Solutions

Singapore — Sigfox has unveiled a suite of advancements that broaden its IoT footprint. The company announced a strategic partnership with travel‑technology leader Amadeus to deliver end‑to‑end luggage tracking, rolled out enhancements to its geolocation services that combine GPS and Wi‑Fi data, and introduced a new Private Area Network (PAN) that offers customers the flexibility of either a private or global service, tailored to budget and operational requirements.

The PAN is essentially a private network that operates atop Sigfox’s existing public network. While the primary motivation is to give customers the choice of treating connectivity as a capital or operating expense, executives also highlighted the added assurance that a dedicated network brings—particularly around data privacy, security, and control.

Sigfox will pilot the PAN with select French customers during the first quarter of 2020, before expanding the rollout to other markets later in the year.

“Sigfox’s PAN will leverage the extensive ecosystem surrounding our wide‑area network. By integrating the full range of market components and using ultra‑low transmission power, we enable battery‑free operation for countless objects,” said Ludovic Le Moan, CEO and co‑founder. “Smart‑home and smart‑city providers stand to benefit early from this new offering.”

In 2020, Sigfox announced that its wide‑area network coverage would be completed through a collaboration with Eutelsat, which will deploy a constellation of nanosatellites. The satellite network will extend Sigfox’s connectivity to every corner of the globe, reinforcing the coverage already provided by the terrestrial network.

To sharpen its geolocation precision, Sigfox introduced two complementary services: Atlas Native and Atlas Wi‑Fi.

Launched in 2017, Atlas Native is Sigfox’s original geolocation solution that relies solely on the Sigfox network. It is available to every device fitted with a standard Sigfox module, eliminating the need for additional GPS or other hardware. For devices that already incorporate GPS, Sigfox now offers Atlas Native as a complimentary service in exchange for data‑processing rights. By comparing GPS coordinates with Sigfox’s network fingerprints, the company’s machine‑learning algorithms can reduce positional uncertainty to as little as 800 meters.

Atlas Wi‑Fi completes the global rollout of Sigfox’s Wi‑Fi‑based geolocation, in partnership with Here Technologies. Leveraging Here’s worldwide database of Wi‑Fi access points, Sigfox trackers can query unique MAC addresses to derive more precise indoor and outdoor asset positions. Because Wi‑Fi positioning consumes less power than GPS, Atlas Wi‑Fi extends battery life for IoT trackers while maintaining high accuracy.

Airports and airlines process billions of pieces of luggage annually, yet lost, damaged, or delayed bags still incur significant financial and reputational costs. Existing tracking solutions often require costly infrastructure upgrades and provide limited interoperability. Regulatory pressure—such as IATA’s Resolution 753—demands tighter tracking to curb loss rates.

In response, Sigfox partnered with Amadeus, a leading provider of travel‑industry IT solutions, to develop a portfolio of tracking technologies that enhance operational efficiency across the air‑transport supply chain. One flagship offering, PinPoint, is an end‑to‑end solution that pairs reusable luggage tags, proximity sensors, and Sigfox’s global network to deliver real‑time location data and anomaly alerts. High‑value assets can be monitored with granular detail, aiding loss prevention and recovery.

Sigfox also showcased its Bubble beaconing technology, developed in collaboration with electronics manufacturer Alps Alpine. By controlling beacon power, the Sigfox cloud can adjust the detection radius from sub‑meter to several tens of meters, improving location precision when assets enter a Bubble cell. In this mode, devices share identification with the cloud for highly accurate positioning.

In Japan, the project will bring 850,000 gas meters from Nippon Gas (Nicigas) online by the end of fiscal 2020. The deployment uses a retrofitted reader called Space Hotaru, developed by UnaBiz and Soracom. The network‑controlling unit (NCU) gathers consumption data and streams it to Nicigas’s “Nicigas Stream” platform via Sigfox’s nationwide wireless network, enabling remote valve control. The NCU is energy‑efficient, with a projected battery life of over ten years, and it can auto‑close the valve during seismic events, enhancing occupant safety. The solution operates on a network managed by Kyocera Communication Systems.

SeongJi Industrial, a wireless connectivity module manufacturer that merged its Wisol IoT business earlier this year, introduced the SRM100A and SRM200A Sigfox Monarch modules. These compact units deliver a radio‑recognition service that allows devices to adapt to local radio‑frequency standards without extra hardware such as GPS or Wi‑Fi chipsets. This capability opens up applications in logistics, supply chain, consumer electronics, and maintenance for ships, aircraft, and railways.

The SRM100A is a Monarch+BLE 5.0 module that integrates STMicroelectronics’ BlueNRG‑2 SoC and S2‑LP ultra‑low‑power radio transceiver. Its dimensions—21.5 mm × 19.5 mm × 2.5 mm—make it the smallest Monarch module on the market, and its half‑through‑hole SMD form factor and BLE 5.0 FOTA support simplify integration. The SRM200A builds on this platform by adding Wi‑Fi, GPS, an accelerometer, BLE 5.0, and NFC‑tag wake‑up, measuring 29.0 mm × 21.0 mm × 2.3 mm. It supports BLE FOTA and NFC‑tag pairing for field updates.

Marco Veneri, low‑power RF business unit manager at STMicroelectronics, noted, “ST has been an early adopter of Sigfox technology within our industrial‑ready portfolio, and the SRM100A and SRM200A modules simplify global asset‑tracking and logistics use cases by offering out‑of‑the‑box Sigfox connectivity with the industry’s most efficient ISM‑band RF solution.”