Sigfox and Center 2M strike deals to expand Russian IoT networks

21 March 2020

Set to cover over 85% of Russia’s population, the network will use ultra-long coverage base stations that Sigfox notes will use “millions of sensors, metering and other devices to connect through low-power, simple and inexpensive radio modules.”

Going forward, Sigfox Russia aims to use an ELO nanosatellite constellation that it is deploying together with Eutelsat in order to deliver coverage to places where terrestrial 0G could not be achieved, including Taiga and the Northern Sea Route.

Bertrand Rame, Senior Vice President Expansion & Partner Management at Sigfox, said: “Russia is a key country not only because of market size, which is predicted to grow to US$7.6 billion in 2022. For the global economy, Russia is also very important for the digitalisation of thousands of kilometres of railway corridors within the Belt & Road Initiative, all the way through the Baltics and Poland to Western Europe.”

In another Russia-based IoT development, local systems integrator Center 2M is launching a federal MVNO-based service using Tele2 Russia’s mobile network. The service will be dedicated entirely to IoT projects, and MTS provide domestic roaming coverage to allow it to extend beyond Tele2’s coverage areas.

Center 2M has been an active MVNO in and around Moscow since 2018 but is now expanding into the rest of Russia. It is currently also discussing the possibility of connecting to Beeline and MegaFon’s networks. 

Center 2M technical director Dmitry Elansky said: “Today we provide a full range of telecommunication services in the field of industrial Internet of Things exclusively for legal entities. We use our network both for mobile data transfer between smart devices (M2M), and as a transport part of our own Center 2M software solutions in certain industries for digitalisation of the Russian economy.”

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