Sigfox - trouble at t'mill

[Andrew Neil]

In the news today:

"Sigfox, the French IoT startup that had raised more than $300M, files for bankruptcy protection as it seeks a buyer"

https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/27/sigfox-the-french-iot-startup-that-had-raised-more-than-300m-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-as-it-seeks-a-buyer/

[waclawek.jan]

https://community.st.com/s/question/0D53W00001KUna6SAD :)

What's t'mill?

JW

[Danish1]

It's a Northern-English expression. "t'mill" = the mill, where many people in the town are employed.

It could mean the steam engine governor failed causing the flywheel to over-speed and explode with bits of metal and masonry flying through many floors, killing or injuring many of the workers.

Or perhaps it's a flour mill, where a spark ignited a flour explosion, again with many casualties.

I guess he means that if sigfox fails, does this mean that there won't be sigfox networks deployed any more, so any hardware that relies on them will stop working? And any developers intending to bring out Sigfox products rapidly need to find an alternative.

I'm currently looking at LoRa / LoRaWan.

[ssipa.1]

bad news

French network operator SigFox is in financial trouble. The company specializing in low-power networks for Internet of Things applications has been placed in receivership.

[Tesla DeLorean]

Yes, lot of activity, everyone running around nervously, causal observer queries what's happening? Trouble at The Mill..​

By all measures that's quite a lot of money...​ So assuming the VCs made them expand geometrically, hire lots of people, and blow it almost immediately to juice the "valuation". Going to have make shed-loads of micro transactions to pay that down..

[Tesla DeLorean]

LoRa / LoRaWAN probably has more traction, US Cable companies have promised​ coverage into the neighbourhoods, Amazon uses it as a "Dark Network" on a lot of their products, notably Ring ones to mesh alerts to nodes with Internet connectivity.

Competitively perhaps Helium Networks..​

[Tesla DeLorean]

We should pass around a hat, could probably rustle up $20

Would probably be a good strategic buy for someone, the Cellular carrier's might just pick it up to make sure it dies.​

[Andrew Neil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj8n4MfhjUc

[Andrew Neil]

@Danish​ "I guess he means that if sigfox fails, does this mean that there won't be sigfox networks deployed any more, so any hardware that relies on them will stop working?" 

Indeed.

Although not entirely clear what the relationship is between Sigfox as the French company in question, and the operators/owners of "sigfox" networks & infrastructure in other territories?

AIUI, Sigfox (the French company) owns the IP to the technology - like Semtech own the LoRa technology - so what does that mean if the French company fails?

Also, the Sigfox network infrastructure is closed & proprietary - unlike LoRaWAN - so what happens if the company goes down?

[waclawek.jan]

Ah, I see. Thanks.

JW