
Netherlands gets first nationwide 'Internet of Things' - Sami_Lehtinen
http://phys.org/news/2016-06-netherlands-nationwide-internet.html
======
tremon
Original press release: [https://corporate.kpn.com/press/press-releases/the-
netherlan...](https://corporate.kpn.com/press/press-releases/the-netherlands-
has-first-nationwide-lora-network-for-internet-of-things-.htm)

LoRa is an industry standard, backed by the LoRa alliance: [https://www.lora-
alliance.org/What-Is-LoRa/Technology](https://www.lora-alliance.org/What-Is-
LoRa/Technology)

------
kees99
For some context about KPN (company doing this) and LoRa (wireless standard
involved):

\- KPN has pretty much 100% country-wide 2G/3G coverage [1], so this is
unlikely to be about long-reach aspect of LoRa;

\- Frequency licenses are _extremely_ expensive [2] and hard to obtain;

\- KPN is silent about whether they use licensed or unlicensed spectrum for
LoRa, apart from noting that frequency is "low" [3], while they didn't obtain
any particularly low-freqency license recently [4]

Chances are this is just a land-grab for 433Mhz. [EDIT 868Mhz]

[1]
[http://www.sensorly.com/map/2G-3G/NL/Netherlands/KPN/gsm_204...](http://www.sensorly.com/map/2G-3G/NL/Netherlands/KPN/gsm_20408)

[2]
[https://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/...](https://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2012/12/17/4g-auction-
raises-usd5bn-for-dutch-coffers/)

[3] [https://corporate.kpn.com/press/press-releases/kpns-new-
lora...](https://corporate.kpn.com/press/press-releases/kpns-new-lora-network-
to-boost-the-internet-of-things.htm)

[4] [https://corporate.kpn.com/press/press-releases/kpn-
obtains-h...](https://corporate.kpn.com/press/press-releases/kpn-obtains-
highly-valuable-spectrum-dividend-outlook-adjusted.htm)

EDIT: Yep, they are going unlicensed, according to the site weitzj has pointed
out: [https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/wiki/LoRaWAN-
Frequencies](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/wiki/LoRaWAN-Frequencies)

------
weitzj
Also a very interesting LoraWan related community project:
[https://www.thethingsnetwork.org](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org)

------
siscia
Who else here on HN is working with LoRa?

In my opinion it can be a very interesting business offering a global team of
expert of the subject.

Feel free to contact me on the address on my profile.

------
ilaksh
Is this type of thing really that important now that we have stuff like the
ESP8266 that is tiny, has WiFi, and has good power saving features like deep
sleep?

~~~
ozim
There was something about port of Rotterdam in the story. Good luck with
installing wifi hotspots all over shipyard or close by rail switches. You also
need access points not that far away for ESP8266 or cable + big antena.

On the other hand WiFi spectrum is already crowded with around 20 networks at
any time in cities with god knows how many clients connected to it.

------
jacquesm
What are the advantages of using something like this over installing your own
gateways?

