PARIS -- Wi-Fi's range is too short, 3G and 4G are too expensive, and both use too much power. A French start-up called Sigfox, says it's licked these network problems -- at least for the idea called the Internet of things.
The Internet of things involves networking countless devices such as cars, toys, heart rate monitors, and traffic lights. These devices may not necessarily need the network capacity of a smartphone used to watch videos, but they need to connect from all over and they need to run on a small battery.
Sigfox's network, using a technology called ultra narrowband (UNB), can only handle data-transfer speeds of 10 to 1,000 bits per second. But the technology is very widespread -- the entire country of France is covered today, for example -- and very cheap.
The network that communicates with the devices then links them to the Internet is relatively inexpensive to build, too, he said.
"For a few hundred million euros, we are able to cover the world," le Moan said. "It's not very expensive to have a network covering every part of the globe."
Low power consumption is critical for devices that may not be plugged in. Sigfox's network devices consume 50 microwatts of power for one-way communication or 100 microwatts for two-way. In comparison, mobile-phone communication needs about 5,000 microwatts.
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