Sigfox partners with Kyocera subsidiary to launch IoT network in Japan

Sigfox and Kyocera Communication Systems (KCCS) announced the nationwide roll-out of the Sigfox IoT network in Japan – which Sigfox claims is the world’s third largest IoT market.

Sigfox said the partnership is a strategic move to tap into a fast-growing market which represents 6% of global revenues that are projected to reach at least $3 trillion by 2025, according to Machina Research.

Sigfox connectivity service now spans across 25 countries. This move marks another key milestone of Sigfox’s rapid expansion in the Asia Pacific region, following rollouts in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan earlier this year.

As Sigfox’s network operator in Japan, KCCS will deploy Sigfox’s network nationwide and distribute the service to its customers. The roll-out of the Sigfox network in Japan will provide main territory coverage in 2018, initially starting in Tokyo in early 2017.

KCCS will target applications across all vertical markets, with a particular focus on public utility, infrastructure, healthcare, logistics, agriculture and manufacturing industries.

Rodolphe Baronnet-Frugès, Sigfox executive vice president of Networks and Operators, said: “We are proud to be entering a partnership with KCCS to enable the huge potential of Japanese corporations and society. I am confident that the Japanese solutions, powered by Sigfox, will meet the fourth industrial revolution challenge head-on.”

“As the third largest IoT market in the world, Japan is strategic for Sigfox, both for its significance as a connected market in its own right, and as a key global contributor to the development of smart connected devices fueling the growth of the internet of things worldwide,” said Roswell Wolff, President, Sigfox Asia Pacific. “We expect exponential growth in demand to connect millions of devices over a simple, low cost, low power and long range network. We look forward to a strong partnership with KCCS to drive the expansion of the Japanese IoT market’’.

KCCS president Yoshihito Kurose added, “There are already a number of Sigfox use cases in the global market that we can learn from. KCCS will create many applications and contribute to the global success of the Sigfox network.”