Swisscom has partnered with Swiss Post to expand its LoRa-based IoT network across Switzerland.
The two companies will collaborate to expand Swisscom’s Low Power Network, with Swiss Post offering additional base station locations and its own expertise to allow the network to expand to cover 90 percent of the population by the end of 2017.
Swiss Post joins over 30 companies including insurance firm Mobiliar and meeting room organisation service Migros who are using the network.
The postal business said the network would enable it to register consignments for collection, to raise an alert if a temperature is exceeded by a package and to find out where a consignment was opened without permission.
It will work with Swisscom to develop applications, which will be open to third parties.
Swiss Post said it had developed and tested smart buttons for hospitals to quickly order additional supplies.
Claudia Pletscher, Head of Development & Innovation at Swiss Post, said: “Thanks to this partnership, we can focus on the development of specific applications and build more flexible and intelligent services based on the networking of things. Good coverage and network quality are key to this.”
Swisscom said that it is open to further partnerships for expanding the network, which was launched in March 2016. The operator, which was one of the founders of the LoRa alliance, said last October that the network had covered 75 percent of the country’s population.