With LoRaWAN™ support, SORACOM IoT communication platform new service model to "share" LoRa gateway Aim for sharing economy of LPWA

In conjunction with the “SORACOM Air for LoRaWAN” service provided by the SORACOM IoT communication platform , SORACOM,INC (Headquarters: Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, CEO Ken Tamagawa,https://soracom.io/; hereafter: SORACOM) has launched a “shared service model” that provides gateways to customers as a service. More information on installation locations for shared gateway spots will be posted on the SORACOM web site.

“LoRaWAN” technology is attracting a great deal of attention for IoT/M2M communication because it can cover a wide area while saving power with a low data transfer rate. The platform containing the user console and service of the IoT communication platform “SORACOM” has been supported by LoRaWAN since February 7, 2017.

Customers who wish to use LoRaWAN privately can purchase and install LoRa gateways themselves and build a private network. This is defined as “owned model” of LoRa gateway in SORACOM. This “owned model” has the merit that customers easily construct and self-operate a private network on their own, and can move the gateway freely as necessary.

For other customers, such as individual developers seeking to begin prototyping and validation with a small number of LoRa devices, purchasing and installing their own gateway has presented a hurdle to development.

For these customers, SORACOM will start a “shared service model” to create an environment that helps to facilitate the introduction and growth of LoRaWAN. In this shared service model, SORACOM provides a shared gateway that can be accessed affordably and used as a service by any contracted customer.

This shared gateway is set to be available to other customers. As a result, other customers around the installation spot of the shared gateway can use the LoRa device without owning or maintaining the LoRa gateway. The installation locations of shared gateways will be published at “SORACOM LoRa Space” on the Soracom site. “SORACOM LoRa Space” will be expanded in the future.

With the commencement of this initiative, SORACOM will cooperate with companies and organizations to set up “shared gateways” at several locations throughout the country. By increasing the number of “shared” LoRa gateways, we expect to expand the area LoRaWAN is available in Japan.

In the future, as customers increasingly use shared service models, shared gateways will be established throughout the country and the installation spots will be made public so that LPWA’s sharing economy will be realized.

Soracom continues to develop IoT communications with developers who have ideas and technologies so that many IoT utilization examples and social innovation can be created with the vision of “a society that connects humans and things all over the world and resonates” And communities, companies and organizations to make it easier to use.

* 1 For details on LoRaWAN compliance of ‘SORACOM’ announced February 7, 2017 See separate press release
“IoT communication platform” SORACOM extends IoT communication platform to support power-saving wide area LoRaWAN™ technology Compatible devices available for purchase beginning February 7″

Record

■ About SORACOM LoRaWAN “Shared Service Model”

1. Availability date
Started on February 7, 2017
– LoRa gateway (shared service model), ordering of LoRa devices is possible from February 7th.
Sequential shipment (scheduled) from March
– “SORACOM LoRa Space” will be released late February

2. “Owned model” and “shared service model”

“Owned model”
The owner of LoRa gateway operates and uses it for customer’s own use.
In the “owned model”, too, the owner of the LoRa gateway can select and set whether to set the gateway, which is the “private” mode setting, to the “public” mode by default.

“Shared service model”
Provide the gateway owned by SORACOM as a monthly service to customers. In addition to using for customer’s own use, LoRa device that uses “SORACOM Air for LoRaWAN” around the gateway can be connected as a publicly shared gateway.

< Owned model and shared service model >

3. Price system of “SORACOM Air for LoRaWAN” (shared service model)
· Initial cost
– Owned model: 69,800 yen / 1 unit (purchase cost)
– Shared service model: 24,800 yen / 1 (registration fee)

· Monthly usage fee
– Owned model: 39,800 yen per month / per gateway
– In the case of the same operator, 29,800 yen per month / second gateway / gateway
– Shared service model: ¥ 9,800 per month / per gateway

· Items included in monthly charge
– Cellular communication charge of gateway (full amount)
– “SORACOM Air for LoRaWAN” usage fee (full amount)
– “SORACOM” application service usage fee (fixed number of times * 1)
– SORACOM Beam / Funnel / Harvest

* 1: Includes SORACOM service usage fee equal to gateway usage fee Depends on the number of devices / gateways and communication frequency

In the case of
< "Comparison of "owned model" and "shared service model" >

< Monthly communication cost for each use case (shared service model) >

4. How to use “owned model”

• Purchase SORACOM compatible LoRa gateway (owned model) from “SORACOM” platform
• Gateway set up where you want to use
• Send data from LoRa module via gateway

 
5. How to use “shared service model”

• Purchase SORACOM compatible LoRa gateway (shared service model) from “SORACOM” platform
• Gateway installed at the place where you applied
• Send data from LoRa module via gateway

 
6. How to use “LoRa device” (without contracting the gateway)

• Purchase SORACOM compatible LoRa device from “SORACOM” platform
• In “SORACOM LoRa Space”, check the location of “Shared Gateway”
• Use in corresponding area

 
7. Location of information on Web site and shared gateway spot

You can see the placement information on the map on the following website.
Shared gateway spots are updated from time to time.
– SORACOM Air for LoRaWAN (in japanese)
https://soracom.jp/services/air/lora/

About SORACOM
SORACOM is the market-leading platform for cloud-native IoT connectivity. We provide customers and partners across industries with the tools they need to connect, protect, control and coordinate their IoT deployments at speed and at scale. More than 4,000 customers worldwide now use SORACOM solutions to bring their most advanced use cases from concept to market.

Company Outline
Company Name: SORACOM, INC.
CEO: Ken Tamagawa
Headquarters: Oshima Bldg. 3F, Tamagawa 4-5-6,
Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Web:https://soracom.io/

Inquiries regarding this news item
SORACOM GLOBAL
Spokesperson: Jake Martin
E-mail: jake@soracom.io