LoRaWAN® recognized as an International Standard

Posted by Parley Labs ,Mar 15th 2022

LoRaWAN® Formally Recognized as ITU International Standard for Low Power Wide Area Networking. Why is this important for the Helium Network?

First off, who is this ITU? Why does that even matter? The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies — ICTs. It is a little-known, multilateral organization first created to regulate the telegram industry. Today, it is responsible for the future of the internet, including critical standard-setting and 5G regulatory activities.

The Emmy award-winning standard ITU-T H.264 is now one of the most popular standards for video compression. ITU standards, called Recommendations, are fundamental to the operation of today’s information and communication technology (ICT) networks. Without ITU standards you couldn’t make a telephone call or surf the Internet. For Internet access, transport protocols, voice and video compression, home networking, and other aspects of ICTs, hundreds of ITU standards allow systems to work — locally and globally.

Why is this important for the Helium Network?

Helium became the fastest growing LoRaWAN network in the world. As the network has grown from 10k hotspots to over 600k hotspots worldwide in just over a year, it’s critical that it is utilized to its fullest potential. LoRaWAN® was developed as an open standard recognized by the LPWAN community and adopted internationally, leading the way to massive scaling.

Global standardization like these are important because they drive the way for mass adoption. This means that those little boxes that you’re installing provide coverage for a mature, well understood technology driving the future of IoT (Internet of Things). These standards drive innovation and quality in the products and services developed to connect the world. We will begin to see IoT products that were not possible before or were primarily in private enterprise deployments.

The outlook on the Helium Network is very promising as LoRaWAN adoption continues to grow worldwide, with industries across all verticals adopting LoRaWAN. A few examples of adoption include

Oil & Gas making the switch to reduce operational costs, increase efficiency and safety.
Smart Cities/Campuses deploying IoT solutions for better resource management and environmental/health monitoring.
Smart and sustainable agriculture utilizing devices like Seeed’s SenseCap soil and temperature sensors for maximizing crop yield and reducing resource expenditure.
Consumer tracking devices that cost a fraction of what’s previously been on the market.