Samsung, SK Telecom building Korea-wide Internet of Things LoRaWAN network

Samsung has announced that they have partnered with SK Telecom to build the world’s first-ever Internet of Things-dedicated nationwide Long Range Wide Area Network. Specifically designed for battery-powered, internet-connected devices, the LoRaWAN network will operate in the 900MHz frequency range. It will initially launch in Daegu, but it will quickly roll out to cover all of South Korea in the coming months.

Samsung believes networks like this one will be absolutely essential in the years to come. As the IoT becomes more and more ubiquitous and as we transition into more autonomous highways, the amount of communication that our devices will need to have with each other and the internet is only going to increase. Daegu, which is South Korea’s fourth largest city, will be used as a test bed for future uses of the LoRaWAN network. One possible use Samsung discusses will be to equip streetlamps with IoT sensors that will allow them to collect traffic and weather information. This would let them automatically dim to save power when their light isn’t necessary, and they will also serve as air pollution readers. Samsung describes the nature of the network thus:

LoRaWAN IoT networks use an unlicensed, public spectrum called the Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency band. To prevent degradation of other industrial communications already using the ISM band, the network will support the Listen Before Talk (LBT) function. A new service model, the Internet of Small Things (IoST), will also be introduced as a key facilitator for more business opportunities utilizing the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) like LoRaWAN. LPWAN is a group of technologies optimized to transmit small amounts of data at very low speeds of below 5Kbps.

The idea is to create a network for the IoT that isn’t as power-hungry or expensive as current connectivity measures such as Bluetooth, cellular networks, or wifi. We look forward to seeing how Samsung and SK Telecom make use of this IoT network. The one thing that is absolutely certain is that the capitalization conventions regarding the involved elements of this story are sure to make any tech blogger reporting on it feel like a 14-year-old girl who is being sO RaNdOm. But anyway, what do you think of SK getting an IoT LoRaWAN via SK Telecom and Samsung? Let us know in the comments!