Grupo DATCO’s VELOCOM signs distribution agreement to become the exclusive Sigfox Operator for Argentina.
Argentina set to join Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia to bring IoT connectivity to over 416 million people across Latin America.
Rollouts planned for Peru, Chile, and Central America in 2017.
LABÈGE, France, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, December 15th, 2016. Sigfox, the world’s leading provider of connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), its Latin American partner, WND, and exclusive local operator, VELOCOM, announced their plan to roll-out of the Sigfox network across Argentina.
WND, a company which is extending Sigfox’s network across Latin America, will work with VELOCOM, a subsidiary of leading IT and Telecom group Grupo DATCO, to manage the Argentinian rollout, sell the connectivity services and drive the overall growth of Sigfox’s IoT ecosystem in the country.
The announcement extends Sigfox’s existing presence across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. The addition of Argentina – Latin America’s third largest economy – will see Sigfox’s network geographically cover 71 per cent of Latin America and 74 per cent of its GDP.
Target applications will include the country’s agricultural, smart city and security sectors. With over 50 million cows – more than its human population – Argentina is a significant market for IoT enabled cattle tracking and monitoring solutions.
Sigfox, WND and VELOCOM will start deploying pilots with selected customers in early 2017, and are currently working with the country’s Ministry of Communications and regulator, ENACOM, to ensure a national public roll-out in 2017.
Rodolphe Baronnet-Frugès, executive vice president networks and operators at Sigfox said, “We are delighted to have VELOCOM as our partner in delivering IoT connectivity in Argentina. Our vision is to give everyday objects a voice, so the physical world around us can contribute towards our economic and social development. Given the significant potential for innovations in areas such as agriculture, smart cities and security, Argentina is ideal for bringing this vision to life.”
Chris Bataillard, CEO of WND Group, added, “Just under one year after the new political start of Argentina, the country is showing a tremendous appetite for innovation. The launch of Sigfox is a leap in the right direction and is in line with this great momentum.”
Horacio Martinez, CEO of Grupo DATCO, said, “We are really excited to move forward with Sigfox in Argentina to develop and extend our business in the IoT market. The Sigfox global scale experience and its low power and low cost technology, along with our knowledge of the local market, will allow us to lead the transition to a hyper-connected world, which will change not only the Internet and telecommunications industry, but a large number of vertical industries and markets in the country. By combining broadband and ultra-narrowband in its portfolio, VELOCOM will be able to service from tiny trackers to huge oil fields”.
Argentina is Sigfox 29th country. The company plans to be in 60 countries by 2018, with roll-outs in Peru, Chile and Central America, on the roadmap for 2017.
About Sigfox
Sigfox is the world’s leading provider of connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT). The company has built a global network to connect billions of devices to the Internet while consuming as little energy as possible, as simply as possible. Sigfox’s unique approach to device-to-cloud communications addresses the three greatest barriers to global IoT adoption: cost, energy consumption, and global scalability. Today, the network is present in 29 countries and on track to cover 60 by 2018 – covering a population of 451million people. With millions of objects connected and a rapidly growing partner ecosystem, Sigfox empowers companies to create new innovations on the IoT. Founded in 2010 by Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet, the company is headquartered in Labège near Toulouse, France’s “IoT Valley”. Sigfox also has offices in Paris, Madrid, Munich, Boston, San Francisco, Dubai and Singapore. For more information, see www.sigfox.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube
About WND
WND is deploying Sigfox’s global network in Latin America to address the demand for low-cost, low-power IoT connectivity. Its business model combines its extensive knowledge of telco-grade deployments with disruptive techniques that are highly adaptable to Sigfox’s connectivity solution. This allows WND to deploy the network rapidly and cost effectively across multiple countries, relying on local partners such as WND Brazil, IotNet Mexico, Phaxsi Solutions in Colombia, and VELOCOM in Argentina. For more information, see www.wnetdev.com
About VELOCOM
VELOCOM, a Grupo DATCO company, provides wireless broadband Internet access and data transmission services for businesses. As part of its value-added services offering, VELOCOM provides integrated hosting, colocation and IT infrastructure outsourcing solutions through its own Data Center with the highest standards of reliability and security for mission-critical applications. VELOCOM provides high capacity internet access, VPN and LAN to LAN links, managed IT & hosting and many other communications solutions through the most appropriate integration of technolo
