Coffs Harbour – First IoT Regional City Deployment in Australia
Thinxtra and Coffs Harbour City Council announced today that the regional city has been fully covered by SIGFOX base stations, making it the first regional city in Australia to receive full coverage for Internet of Things (IoT).
This deployment was done in cooperation with Schneider Electric who will be collaborating with Thinxtra to bring IoT solutions to Coffs Harbour. The city was selected by Thinxtra and Schneider Electric due to the City’s avid engagement with IoT and the cooperation of the Council to achieve a quick deployment.
Loic Barancourt, CEO of Thinxtra: “Coffs Harbour, being a Centre of Strategic Growth and having a burgeoning business and innovation centre, was a perfect choice for us to demonstrate how IoT can help boost regional economy and business. We are eager to cooperate with Coffs Harbour and Schneider Electric in creating test beds and use cases showing how IoT can improve businesses and quality of living, as well as spark innovation”.
The SIGFOX network in Coffs Harbour took less than a week to install, and now enables the entire city and its surroundings to be connected to the SIGFOX* Low Power Wide Area Network. As a dedicated wireless IoT network, it provides the infrastructure to connect millions of low-power devices (which can include water meters, environmental sensors and asset trackers). The economic significance of being early IoT adopters is apparent from McKinsey’ estimation that the IoT globally has a total potential economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025, equivalent to about 11 percent of the world economy.
“Coffs Harbour is a city noted for its enthusiasm for forward-thinking technological innovation,” said Andrew Beswick, Coffs Harbour City Council’s Director Business Services. “The SIGFOX network is a major step forward which will make the city even more attractive to new business, as well as helping improve community services and the quality of life for our residents.”
“Schneider Electric has had a close partnership with Coffs Harbour Council in the industrial automation and wide area telemetry space for more than 15 years,” Brad Yager, Director Process Automation at Schneider Electric said. “Coffs Harbour has always been a progressive council, especially in the digital technology space. It is great to be working with them to further this push and for them to be embracing the benefits the Internet of Things can bring. We look forward to providing innovative solutions in conjunction with Thinxtra to the council, and region.”
About Thinxtra
Thinxtra is empowering Australia and New Zealand’s Internet of Things by deploying SIGFOX world-leading LPWAN connectivity as well as building a full ecosystem of IoT solutions and services to enable the non-connected to connect, to increase productivity, accelerate decision making, improve quality of service and solve problems in an economic and connected manner.
Thinxtra was launched in 2015 and is backed by a consortium of strategic investors including cornerstone investor Rakon Limited, a NZX-listed high-tech leader in innovation of communications technology. The network roll out in Australia and New Zealand has commenced and is on track to meet its target of covering 95% of the ANZ population with SIGFOX connectivity by the end of 2017.
About Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric is the global specialist in energy management and automation. With revenues of ~€27 billion in FY2015, our 160,000+ employees serve customers in over 100 countries, helping them to manage their energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. From the simplest of switches to complex operational systems, our technology, software and services improve the way our customers manage and automate their operations. Our connected technologies reshape industries, transform cities and enrich lives. At Schneider Electric, we call this Life Is On.
www.schneider-electric.com.au
For more information about Schneider Electric’s Internet of Things offering, visit www.schneider-electric.com.au/iot
* SIGFOX is the world’s leading provider of dedicated communications service for the Internet of Things. The company’s network complements existing high-bandwidth systems by providing simple, economical, energy-efficient two-way transmission of small quantities of data over long distances, thus lowering barriers to wide implementation of IoT solutions, and greatly extending the battery and service life of connected devices. Currently operating in 24 countries and registering over 8 million devices in its network, SIGFOX is the only IoT-dedicated connectivity solution commercially available today that guarantees a high level of service and reliability on an international scale. Corporate headquarters are in France, and the company has offices in Boston, San Francisco, Madrid, Munich, Dubai, and Singapore.
For more information, see www.sigfox.com and follow Twitter @SIGFOX
