Thinxtra launches $5M Program to bring IoT to Smart Councils

[Arthur Baoustanos]

Thinxtra is introducing a new Partnership Program for Smart Councils, and offering it to the first 50 selected councils in Australia. This unique program provides Sigfox network coverage within 4 weeks at no cost to the Council, to bring Internet of Things solutions to the community.

Thinxtra is investing $5M into this program which includes free installation, free development kits for incubators and free connectivity for smart council application develop.

http://www.thinxtra.com/2016/11/thinxtra-launches-5m-program-to-bring-iot-to-smart-councils/

 

[Geoff Sizer]

Promise of low cost Sigfox modules.

http://www.sigfox.com/en/press/sigfox-s-ecosystem-delivers-world-s-first-ultra-low-cost-modules-to-fuel-internet-of-things

Whilst I'll "believe it when I see it" - ie Sigfox modules which are fully Australian-certified (by Sigfox, and legal for use in Australia), at the prices quoted, at realistic quantitiy price break points - this is a promising development.

The long-term viability of Sigfox in Australia may well depend on this coming to pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Heath Raftery]

On 11/3/2016 at 10:09 PM, Arthur Baoustanos said:

Thinxtra is investing $5M into this program which includes free installation, free development kits for incubators and free connectivity for smart council application developments.

This is a great program that is sure to entice councils into allowing some much needed infrastructure for IoT applications. I am confused just what Thinxtra are giving away though. The installation is already "free" (Thinxtra always funds installation because they make money on subscribers). The dev kits are a nice though they're not particularly expensive and any serious developer will already have their own rather than relying on a communal kit. The free connectivity is the big ticket item here and I couldn't find any details. What qualifies as a "smart council application"? How long is the period of free connectivity? This is Thinxtra's bread and butter, so I'm sure they have plenty of enticing "your-first-hit-is-free" style offers.

 

On 11/8/2016 at 9:02 AM, Geoff Sizer said:

Whilst I'll "believe it when I see it" - ie Sigfox modules which are fully Australian-certified (by Sigfox, and legal for use in Australia), at the prices quoted, at realistic quantitiy price break points - this is a promising development.

The long-term viability of Sigfox in Australia may well depend on this coming to pass.

That's quite an astute observation. This gap between promise and reality is causing quite some pain for those that actually want to make some stuff work in the field. The LoRaWAN hardware situation is very challenging in Australia. I'm less familiar with the Sigfox situation but I'm sure there are similar gotchas. Does anyone have a bare-truth assessment on this situation today?

[Andrew at MEA]

On 08/11/2016 at 8:32 AM, Geoff Sizer said:

The long-term viability of Sigfox in Australia may well depend on this coming to pass.

...thus leaving developers with a conundrum. 

Developing IoT products for the Sigfox network strengthens their business and enables network expansion and greater coverage.

Hanging back to see if Sigfox is a viable IoT platform in the long-term increases the risk that it will not be, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So I'm thinking about multi-platform developments, such as Sigfox for 'long-haul always-on' remote applications plus a Bluetooth pipe for local unloading via mobile-phone.

[Arthur Baoustanos]

Anyone involved in delivering technology to Councils may want to have a look at the Australian Government $50m Smart Cities & Suburbs programme.

Submissions close on 20 January 2017. Details at: https://cities.dpmc.gov.au/smart-cities-program