BROWSING: BLE
Ultra-cheap, long-life, green-by-design – Sigfox teases biodegradable IoT at $0.30
Note, in the week following publication of this article, Sigfox filed for bankruptcy. Coverage of receivership procedings against Sigfox can be found here; read on to hear about the kind of big ideas that, perhaps, undermined Sigfox in the end – but which also...
Wirepas lands indoor tracking, monitoring deals – including key contract with Orange
IoT connectivity company Wirepas has secured a couple of notable deals, including with Orange Business Services (OBS), the enterprise IT and system integration division of French operator Orange, which will offer the Finnish firm’s proprietary low-power Wirepas Massive mesh technology for large-scale indoor asset...
Qualcomm seeks to remake physical retail – as touchless, frictionless and filled with IoT
Qualcomm Technologies has identified physical retail as a key growth sector for its IoT chip business. The sector has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said, and requires urgent and drastic attention. Retailers can bring a new level of customer experience and...
Batteries not included – the only way to make IoT massive, and also green
Last week, Amsterdam-based Nowi, a specialist in energy harvesting tech for integrated circuit (IC) microchips, announced work with narrowband IoT connectivity provider Sigfox to produce IoT modules that extract power from ambient energy sources, instead of from conventional single-use or rechargeable batteries. It has...
‘All the capabilities to be a front-runner’ – OBS and the SI model for Industry 4.0
Note, this article is continued from a previous entry, under the headline: 'A "different beast" in the telco pack – often it’s not about 5G at all, says Orange'. For the first instalment, go here.
We should rewind, and hit play again on the Safran...
A ‘different beast’ in the telco pack – often it’s not about 5G at all, says Orange
Orange’s supply of a non-cellular Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) indoor tracking system for aerospace manufacturer Safran Aircraft Engines in France, announced in November, is the jumping off point for a wide-ranging conversation about the finer points of selling digital change to the Industry 4.0...
Orange plays SI in supply of non-cellular BLE tracking for Safran Aircraft Engines
Orange Business Services, the IT and system integrator (SI) division of mobile operator Orange, has delivered a non-cellular Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based indoor tracking system for aerospace manufacturer Safran Aircraft Engines across two sites in France. The solution pulls together tracker tags from...
Morse Micro confirms Wi-Fi certification of HaLow chips, modules, reference designs
Semiconductor company Morse Micro, developing Wi-Fi HaLow for low-power mid-range IoT connectivity, has confirmed its various chipsets, modules, and reference designs have been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance as part of its new Wi-Fi HaLow accreditation scheme. Its new Wi-Fi HaLow reference design is...
Nordic offers embedded ML in resource-constrained cellular IoT modules
Nordic Semiconductor is now offering embedded machine learning (ML) software with its cellular-based IoT chipset portfolio. The move continues its partnership with US-based Edge Impulse, which makes miniaturised ML (‘TinyML’) tools for chips in resource-constrained IoT modules. The pair announced TinyML support for the...
PostNL connects 250,000 roll containers using BLE trackers in the Netherlands
Netherlands postal logistics provider PostNL has deployed Bluetooth-based tracking beacons on 250,000 roll containers. It has partnered with Polish IoT provider Kontakt.io on the project.
PostNL delivers 1.1 million parcels and 8.1 million letters throughout the Benelux nations each day. The newly deployed Bluetooth Low...
‘No infrastructure, no middlemen’ – Wirepas preps ‘first non-cellular 5G’ for industrial IoT
IoT connectivity company Wirepas is readying a new mesh-based industrial IoT technology in the license-free 1.9 GHz spectrum band to go up against cellular-based private 5G systems. Its new product, called Wirepas Private 5G, is based on the new DECT-2020 NR standard, set to...
First dual-mode MIOTY and BLE solution released for short and long-range IoT
Toronto-based BehrTech has combined with Texas Instruments to release the first dual-stack low-power IoT chip to run both wide-area MIOTY and short-range Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity. The unit makes concurrent use of license free 2.4GHz spectrum for BLE and sub-GHz spectrum for MIOTY.
The...
‘IoT is on a roll’ – Nordic Semi looks to South America for ‘massive’ IoT surge
Nordic Semiconductor has expanded its presence in South America with a new sales and technical support agreement with Brazilian consulting firm BP&M. The chipmaker reckons “IoT is on a roll” in the region with “massive deployment of cellular IoT” and “increasing focus on short-range...
IoT market heats up around UWB as FiRa Consortium brings Rohde into the fold
The FiRa Consortium, the organisation looking to build the IoT market around the burgeoning ultra wideband (UWB) technology, is taking on new members at a decent rate. Germany-based wireless test company Rohde & Schwarz is the latest to sign up, as an associate member....
100,000 units, ‘and growing’ – Wirepas, Ingy strike monster deal for indoor smart lighting
IoT connectivity provider Wirepas has closed a monster-sized deal with smart lighting provider Ingy for 100,000 units of its mesh networking solution, to be combined with Ingy’s indoor lighting control solutions. It is the biggest smart lighting deal to date for Finland-based Wirepas, providing...
Nordic Semiconductor brings ‘tiny’ AI to BLE-based IoT chips, claims ‘industry-first’
IoT chipmaker Nordic Semiconductor has added artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to its flagship series of Bluetooth IoT chips, to bring contextual insights at the very edge on low-power IoT devices. The move follows a partnership with US-based Edge Impulse, which makes miniaturised...
LoRa Alliance on 2021: ‘The planet must get (IoT) prepped for further disruption’
2020 has seen the greatest acceleration of digital transformation and automation in history. As the world looks to emerge from Covid-19, the reality that this will not be the last pandemic remains – and this means every person, company, and government must be better...
Nordic buys Wi-Fi assets from Imagination Tech to mix Wi-Fi with BLE and cellular IoT
Nordic Semiconductor has acquired Ensigma, the Wi-Fi division of UK-based semiconductor and software design firm Imagination Technologies Group, for an undisclosed fee. The deal is for Ensigma’s development operations, including most of its staff, and tech assets and intellectual property.
Imagination Technologies Group is owned...
Three ways Covid-19 has spurred asset tracking and the march on massive IoT
Note, this article is taken from a new report on the asset tracking sector, called Asset Tracking - and the March Towards Massive IoT. The report can be downloaded here.
It is not just about the march of technology – that trackers are getting smaller...
NXP expands UWB portfolio for IoT smart locks and RTLS tags
Dutch chip-maker NXP Semiconductors has expanded its ultra-wideband (UWB) portfolio to include new integrated circuits (ICs) for IoT use cases including smart locks and real-time location system (RTLS) tags.
UWB technology, a one-time competitor of Wi-Fi and some-time facility for military surveillance, has seen a...
What is asset tracking, and what is it worth? (Why it’s a jungle – and why it’s massive)
What is asset tracking, anyway? And what is it worth? Because tracking of machine data, one way or another, is easily conflated with the internet-of-things (IoT) movement, at large. And we all know about the mad growth slated for general purpose IoT. Fifty billion...
From vehicles to vaccines (and BLE to NB-IoT): five key asset tracking use cases
1 | FedEx + BLE – for tracking vaccine shipments
FedEx has introduced a new Bluetooth based asset tracking system in time for anticipated shipping of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as for other emergency pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Customers in the aerospace and retail sectors will...
FedEx intros BLE tracking solution ahead of COVID-19 vaccine shipments
FedEx has introduced a new Bluetooth based asset tracking system in time for anticipated shipping of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as for other emergency pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Customers in the aerospace and retail sectors will also be able to access location data from...
Orange, De Beers use BLE geofencing for worker safety in deep-sea diamond mining
Orange Business Services, the enterprise services division of France-based carrier Orange, and De Beers Marine South Africa, part of diamond company De Beers, have developed and deployed a customised IoT solution to provide geofencing to maintain safe working distances for crew in offshore deep-sea...