In 2015, EI Towers decided to install a cutting edge and unique network infrastructure, exclusively dedicated to IoT. Managed by the subsidiary EIT Smart, it is the only national 0G Sigfox network operator and it’s capable of guaranteeing international interoperability by integrating seamlessly with the networks of the other 70 operators who use the same communication standard.
The strong growth of the IoT market is closely linked to the concept of “ecosystem” between all the players in the value chain, from chipset and sensor manufacturers to system integrators. In this context, EIT Smart is an IoT “technological enabler” and offers a secure and high-performance network infrastructure for the creation of innovative IoT solutions.
It is therefore possible to create intelligent solutions that were unsustainable until yesterday due to the high implementation costs, the energy consumption levels of the sensors and the limitations of the transmission protocol in terms of security.
The new challenge that EIT Smart is facing today is the convergence between the different IoT ecosystems.

Which is the meaning of Convergence?

The term Convergence refers to the ability to combine different IoT technologies to promote their adoption; in other words, it means making IoT ecosystems interoperable to remove any complexities experienced by end users.
Convergence does not refer to the fusion of technologies, but to the collaboration between IoT technologies based on the intended use.
It also can be applied to the integration between existing terrestrial and satellite networks and guarantees integration between device and application. The areas of application are the most diverse: from monitoring infrastructure and the territory to smart agriculture, from utilities to logistics and supply chain.

Convergence: the simple and effective solution

Companies that interface with the IoT world often experience problems:

• There’s no IoT technology that can satisfy all IoT needs alone.
• There’s no IoT technology that has global widespread coverage.
• End-to-end integration (chip to cloud) is complex.

Convergence overcomes these problems and offers many benefits to those who choose it:

• Easy and convenient integration, with access to a greater number of application areas.
• Wider coverage in some particular sectors such as asset tracking, water metering or agriculture.
• Greater network resilience and higher communication capacity, with the simultaneous use of LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) IoT networks, such as Sigfox, LoRaWAN and Cellular (for example in applications relating to smart metering).
• Access to technology-agnostic middleware and vertical platforms to simplify integrations and make the most of data collected in the field.

The advantages for the IoT ecosystem

The whole IoT ecosystem (manufacturers of devices, modules and solutions, as well as system integrators) also benefits from the choice to apply Convergence:

• Reduction of investment risk by combining different IoT technologies (a single product that allows the use of multiple Low Power Wide Area Networks – LPWAN).
• Access a broader market by leveraging different ecosystems and implementing hybrid modes (Sigfox, LoRa and Cellular).