Cost and low battery consumption are big drivers of thinking about network characteristics for support of Internet of Things apps and devices, particularly industry applications intended to work in rural areas, or in any setting where labor cost to replace batteries affects the business model.
And even if an ideal network might support every conceivable media app and application setting equally well, that is not the case, at present. For such reasons, special-purpose IoT networks such as the several low-power IoT alternatives, based on use of unlicensed spectrum, have been developed.
SK Telecom price plans for LoRaWAN-based Internet of Things services sheds at least some light on retail pricing for all such services, including rival services based on use of mobile networks. Specifically, LoRa services are an order of magnitude lower than comparable LTE network connections, according to a report by the Korea Times.
That pricing differential suggests why many tier-one mobile service providers will try to create additional roles within various IoT ecosystems, instead of supplying access services.
The “Band IoT” plans come in six different tiers based on the amount of usage, from Band IoT 35 (approx. US$0.3) priced at KRW 350 to Band IoT 200 priced at KRW 2,000 (US$1.75).
Sigfox makes the same observation about LTE-based IoT access being 10 times more costly than Sigfox.
No comments:
Post a Comment