Dutch LoRaWan operator Everynet and Texas-based Crown Castle are launching a national IoT network in the USA.

The first phase of the rollout will include the top 36 metropolitan areas and key logistics corridors across the country, expected to go live by the end of this year.

Everynet’s neutral-host business model lets mobile network operators, mobile virtual network operators, application service providers, managed service providers and internet service providers offer carrier grade low-power wide-area (LPWA) IoT services to their customers. Everynet networks are live in Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, UK, Italy, Puerto Rico, Ireland and Iceland. It also participates in the LoRa Alliance.

“Expansion to the US market is an important part of our global development,” said Lawrence Latham, CEO of Everynet. “Our ultra-low-cost networks are already live across the globe, and we are pleased to enable nationwide, no capex, turn-key IoT networks for our CSP partners. Everynet networks deliver carrier grade connectivity, with built-in resilience, security and meaningful SLAs without any need for network capex from our wholesale customers.”

To enable the network, Everynet will use Crown Castle’s towers. With more than 40,000 cell towers and nearly 130,000 route kilometres of fibre, Crown Castle has the infrastructure and deployment capability for the long-term buildout of this network. Everynet’s 15-year commitment ensures that LoRaWan users, across the USA can easily go live on the network to monetise their deployments such as smart sensors or monitoring tools.

“It was an easy decision to work with Everynet to build out their LoRaWan IoT connectivity,” said Paul Reddick, vice president at Crown Castle. “We both see the long-term value of LoRaWan in the USA and embrace shared infrastructure access for customers. We look forward to helping Everynet go live with a much-needed network.”

To enable long range connectivity for IoT devices on the network, Everynet collaborated with Semtech, a supplier of analogue and mixed-signal semiconductors and a creator of LoRa technology.

“Our work with Everynet extends back many years and across many different geographies,” said Mohan Maheswaran, CEO of Semtech. “As a company, we are committed to helping our customers address real world challenges and make the world a better, sustainable planet. Everynet’s network launch will allow even more IoT applications and use cases leveraging LoRa to hit the US market, everything from smart refrigeration and asset tracking to water conservation and utilities management.”

The LoRaWan open standards-based ecosystem provides companies with a selection of hundreds of devices and applications. LoRaWan radio frequency technology, used by Everynet, is a widely adopted long-range, low-power option that helps build low-cost IoT projects worldwide.

Uses for the network include:

• Utilities: Applications to monitor, maintain and gather data remotely on water systems, substations, smart grid reclosers, transformers, LPG gas, and residential and commercial metering.
• Supply chain logistics: Tracking and monitoring critical assets such as pallets, containers and goods. By managing the geo-location, cold-chain monitoring, humidity and shock, enterprises can receive real-time data on the movement, condition and arrival of assets through the complete supply chain.
• Smart infrastructure: Applications to check air quality and monitor status of buildings and infrastructure such as lighting, HVAC, water use and leak detection, CO₂, occupancy sensors, and worker safety.

Any platform provider, device maker and service provider can use the network through the Ethingz ecosystem partner programme.