Sigfox IoT through SqwidNet – It just works

What the article doesn't say:

* This is low-bandwidth stuff. 8 byte frames, and even slower than the slowest CAN bus.
* This does NOT mean you can take your Arduino and connect to it with an appropriate radio. We explored the in's and out's of getting onto this bandwagon and its pretty much the same deal as with the USB-IF... pay steep upfront fee, get assigned unique ID number in return.
* The red tape made the client bail out of the negotiations.
 
Subscription pricing isn't that bad, and there are lots of uses for bi-directional low bandwidth usage.

Metering is one.
GPS tracking is another.

They even include 1 year sub in the dev devices.
Costing depends on messages sent/received (over a certain volume, prices increase)

I personally don't have use for it (yet), but have looked at it.
 
The_MAC said:
With such low frequencies, it is possible to do this with very few towers.
Its very different to traditional mobile technologies
Click to expand...

Well actually its within the lower end of the mobile frequency range - 868mhz
http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/SIGFOX (SA uses 868mhz similar to Middle East, despite the wiki not listing us at all).

LTE does use that in other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands


Interesting quick read on the competing technologies here - https://www.link-labs.com/blog/nb-iot-vs-lora-vs-sigfox and here https://www.link-labs.com/blog/sigfox-vs-lora

Have to say though, as a dev, LoRa is cheaper to use. No subscription, and you can setup your own gateways. The chipset hardware is also far cheaper than SigFox's.

SX1278 can be had in low volumes for under R45
 
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Sigfox has been hoping for an IPO for years and it does not look like 2018 will give it to them either (last year they slipped IPO due to VC funding shortfall). I still think that NB-IoT is a better standard (or LTE-M1). No real value-proposition and it will be only a matter of months until that particular device suffers a vulnerability (Shodan will help).
 
lsheed_cn said:
Have to say though, as a dev, LoRa is cheaper to use. No subscription, and you can setup your own gateways. The chipset hardware is also far cheaper than SigFox's.

SX1278 can be had in low volumes for under R45
Click to expand...

True - I think Sigfox will come in for half the price but will be more expensive due to subs. I honestly rather have my own data on my own cloud.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
True - I think Sigfox will come in for half the price but will be more expensive due to subs. I honestly rather have my own data on my own cloud.
Click to expand...

For my own personal use, I'm finding the ESP8266 to be really brilliant value. Wifi + enough ram / cpu / gpio to do pretty much anything I need. Sure that means I need wifi, but for close to house equipment, its great.

As for Sigfox being cheaper - its not.

Hardware pricing is fairly similar to LoRa, if not marginally more expensive.
 
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