Orange has announced plans to launch an Internet of Things (IoT) network in France in the first quarter of 2016.
The telco has opted to use long range WAN (LoRaWAN) technology to underpin the network. It uses unlicensed spectrum to transmit small quantities of data over long distances to myriad devices at low cost and power consumption.
Orange did not detail how the deployment will take shape, but stated its aim to extend IoT coverage to the whole of metropolitan France.
"The development of the Internet of Things is expected to surge in the coming years. By 2020, we believe that there will be more than 25 billion objects connected in the world," said Orange CEO Stéphane Richard, in a statement on Friday.
"Beyond connectivity, Orange is also involved in the distribution of connected objects, in the aggregation and data processing stemming from these obj ects as well as proposing value-added services in the fields of health and well-being, the connected home and smart cities," he said.
The deployment is in line with Orange’s strategic goal, outlined in its Essentials 2020 plan, of generating €600 million of revenue from IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) services by 2018.
Last week’s announcement follows a large-scale IoT trial, carried out in Grenoble in May, in which 30 partners took part.
