Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman, LoRa Alliance
By Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman, LoRa Alliance
2022 was truly a transformative year for IoT, yielding major shifts in perception and execution, and surpassing milestones of massive deployments. At the LoRa Alliance, our experience was that people moved away from asking about “what” LoRaWAN is, to asking about “how” to deploy, how to find devices, how to partner, how to achieve ROI. IoT clearly has moved into a new stage of mass adoption.
The execution and results of LoRaWAN proof of concepts (PoCs) provide evidence of this market shift. Previously, deploying a PoC took an average of 12 to 18 months. Now, it averages about 6 months. Even better, the ROI on LoRaWAN projects is usually higher than what was originally estimated. Organizations that complete these PoCs quickly realize that the fastest way to compound value is to add new use cases and optimize their operations to benefit from the efficiencies that the solution is providing.
The tremendous headwinds over the past few years—Covid-19, climate change, flooding, fires, droughts, labor shortages, inflation, supply chain constraints—became tailwinds for LoRaWAN technology. In response to the world’s struggle to maintain systems and processes that support daily life, LoRaWAN was deployed to alleviate the problems. LoRaWAN is now used to monitor air and food quality; water quality and availability; infrastructure; and safety, security and health, and much more. While supporting people and the planet, LoRaWAN drives efficiencies that promote business growth and financial stability, making it the leading IoT connectivity solution.
So, what does 2023 hold? The fact is that the world continues to face a growing list of challenges. A major focus in 2023 will be improving infrastructure – buildings, utilities and cities need to find solutions to enhance and improve existing systems that are too expensive to replace outright. When business and governments plan their solutions, they will choose LPWAN IoT and there is huge opportunity for LoRaWAN because of the considerable ROI it generates.
