Sigfox owner UnaBiz has signed a global IoT distribution agreement with Soracom, a Japanese provider of IoT connectivity, to offer cellular connectivity to its customers.

Earlier this year, Soracom announced the joint global development and launch of an LTE-M-based IoT button with UnaBiz that uses Soracom’s eSIM technology and cloud-native smart connectivity platform.

The announcement marks yet another milestone in UnaBiz’s advancement of technology convergence, by offering global IoT network coverage from 0G to 5G to enable massive IoT.

The new global agreement will provide UnaBiz customers access to Soracom’s global cellular networks enabled by 350 mobile carriers across 170 countries, and provide services complementary to the global 0G network powered by Sigfox technology.

The cellular connectivity offer brings additional value to UnaBiz’s key verticals of utilities, supply chain, logistics, building and facility management, and security, and will open up segments and a dozen addressable critical IoT use cases that require lower latencies, larger data volume and uninterrupted communication.

The agreement will kick off in Singapore, Taiwan, France, Spain and Portugal, with the objective to be extended to more than 70 Sigfox 0G operators worldwide where a cellular connectivity option is required.

“It is clear that there is no single network technology that can cover all IoT use cases and collaboration is key to enable IoT at scale,” said Henri Bong, CEO of UnaBiz. “By joining forces with Soracom, our customers will gain access to best-of-breed cellular IoT connectivity to help them achieve their business objectives and ESG goals. This distribution model is already tested and proven today by UnaBiz and its 0G operator partners. Our customers chose us because of the additional IoT expertise and know-how they can access alongside the cellular service, which are not always available from your traditional local telco SIM provider. This is why we are pleased to strengthen our strategic partnership with Soracom in this new global agreement.”

The agreement builds on the long-term partnership between UnaBiz and Soracom that started in 2018 when Soracom led a $10m investment in UnaBiz’s series A funding round. The synergies created by this combined offering were first established in 2020 when UnaBiz and Soracom partnered to deliver an LTE-M-based smart meter reader for NiciGas, Japan’s largest LP gas company, to complement its existing Sigfox-based smart meter reader.

The LTE-M connectivity is powered by Soracom’s IoT connectivity platform, which natively supports blended Sigfox and cellular deployments and provides access to cloud capabilities.

“Soracom is pleased to support UnaBiz and its 0G operator partners with IoT connectivity and platform services that connect seamlessly to multiple cellular networks including 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, Cat-M1 and NB-IoT,” said Ken Tamagawa, CEO of Soracom. “As a cloud-agnostic, hardware-agnostic platform, we firmly believe in the technology convergence movement. We look forward to working with UnaBiz to offer Soracom coverage and cloud-native capabilities in new markets and reinforce UnaBiz’s position as a massive IoT service provider and integrator.”

Customers located in Singapore, Taiwan, France, Spain and Portugal will be able to purchase Soracom IoT SIM cards from their respective local UnaBiz operators directly or contact UnaBiz for cellular-based IoT.

Founded in 2015, Soracom now serves more than 20,000 start-ups, SMBs and global enterprises across all industries, from agriculture, energy, construction and transportation to consumer electronics, manufacturing, real estate and healthcare.