As you may recall, in May of this year Helium, Semtech, Arm, STMicroelectronics, and the global developer community at Hackster.io teamed up to give developers a little extra incentive build LoRa®-based Internet of Things (IoT) applications using connected devices designed to make the world a better place.

Smart Homes are booming in popularity. The increasing volume of connected devices that collect data make them an attractive target for hackers. Accordingly, buyers are increasingly concerned about the privacy and security of their Smart Home data. The combination of LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol provides powerful levels of security for Smart Home system consumers.

Amsterdam, January 2020

Helium and Semtech recently announced that the Helium Network is one of the largest, public LoRaWAN networks in the United States. On the heels of this, we want to properly introduce the Helium Network to LoRa® Developer Portal users, and put together a few tutorials and deep dives to ensure this community can quickly take advantage of Helium for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The need to be able to create proofs-of-concept quickly is important to you. At Semtech we understand this, and now offer the Asset Tracking Reference Kit. This kit is designed to help you quickly determine whether or not a LoRa®-based tracking solution will work for your logistics and tracking applications.

Looking to scale-up your business by implementing affordable asset management solutions that can last for years, without wasting time and money recharging or replacing batteries?

Looking for asset tracking solutions that can provide robust end-to-end security without compromising system integrity, all in a single design that can support both indoor and outdoor applications?

Wait no longer.

With the continued maturation of low power wide area networks (LPWANs) and the Internet of Things (IoT), here are my predictions for the coming year:

There are a number of differentiators for LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol that have helped in its widespread adoption, including long range connectivity, battery lifetime, security, network architecture, and network capacity. However, there is one particular feature that will drive LoRaWAN adoption for years to come. Technical challenges or limitations (range, capacity, battery lifetime, etc.) are no longer a barrier to Internet of Things (IoT) adoption. The remaining challenges of the IoT are system integration, digital transformation, return-on-investment (ROI), service level agreements (SLA), and ensuring interoperability across an ecosystem.

On October 24th, 2019, Semtech hosted a LoRa boot camp in conjunction with Comcast, MachineQ, Murata, RF Laboratories, and SolderWorks. SolderWorks, a diversely experienced hardware and software engineering firm, developed a way to monitor real-time fermentation data using LoRa-based devices. By brewing a special in-house “LoRa® Boot Camp IPA” that provided a unique way to test the LoRa Boot Camp IPA Coaster, the boot camp sponsors were able to demonstrate a potential use case and value proposition of LoRa devices and the open LoRaWAN protocol.