Hon Hai Group subsidiary Asia Pacific Telecom, Tuesday, announced the formation of Taiwan’s first Internet of Things alliance, partnering with major operators and technology companies including Actility, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft.

“All members of the alliance will have free access to our LoRa network, as a step to realise the business promise of internet of things (IoT) with an open, welcoming ecosystem,” Asia Pacific Telecom chairman Lu Fang-ming said.

LoRa, short for Long Range, is among a series of narrowband technologies that connect devices cheaply over unlicensed spectrum and vast distances and require very little power.

“We hope more will join with the alliance, and the goal is to have 1bn IoT devices in Taiwan by 2020,” said Lu. “This should be possible, since industry forecasts have indicated there will be 25bn connected things in use globally that year.”

The alliance, named “IoT by GT,” aims at creating an integrated IoT system that joins together academics, chip manufacturers, network developers, and application suppliers among others — players on different levels of a wide IoT ecology — to help each other succeed in this fast-growing industry, said Lu.

Asia Pacific Telecom recently announced it has completed the roll-out of 500 LoRa gateways to provide coverage for Taipei City, New Taipei City and Taoyuan. The firm seeks to expand coverage to other parts of the island by the end of the year, depending on the needs of particular IoT application projects.

The China Post/ ANN

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, August 15th, 2016