By James Blackman

India-based LoRaWAN provider SenRa has expanded its network operation to 74 cities in India, and has claimed a rush of deals with the likes of Bosch for industrial IoT, Ripple Metering for smart meters, and PNI for smart parking, as well as deals running to 10,000 units. It is also expanding with LoRaWAN into the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

The firm started building LoRaWAN-based infrastructure in India’s National Capital Region (NCR) in May 2017. Last we heard from it, in early 2019, it told of “interest and growth” in the country, with LoRaWAN coverage in 30 cities, and building momentum. An new update says the firm has now expanded to 74 cities in India.

SenRa is using a cloud-based managed services system for LoRaWAN networks from US IoT provider Senet, which the latter firm claims reduces network rollout to 90 days – from 18-24 months, typically. SenRa has built “strategic relationships” with various companies in various vertical markets in India, said Senet.

These include deals with Bosch in the industrial IoT and smart cities sectors, Ripple Metering for smart meters, PNI for smart parking and parking enforcement, and as part of the Indian government’s ‘Smart City Mission’. SenRa’s most recent deployments include 10,000-odd water meters for the Pimpri-Chinchwad smart city project, managed by Tech Mahindra, and 8,000 residential and commercial gas meters in Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Ludhiana.

SenRa is utilizing Senet’s managed network services for IoT (MNSi) platform to expand its network deployments into other countries. It has deployed, or is deploying, LoRaWAN networks in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa, including in Kuwait, Oman, Singapore, and Somalia, among other locations.

Senet said it has implemented more than 45 major network server platform updates over the past 52 months while maintaining “carrier-grade uptime”.

Chief executive at SenRa, Ali Hosseini said: “While some network operators have struggled with the complexities of building and managing an IoT network from the ground up, SenRa has gained a significant competitive advantage by partnering with Senet to establish and expand our business.

“The rich feature set of Senet’s managed networks services platform deliver all of the tools necessary to design, deploy and maintain our network infrastructure, onboard and support a growing number of customers at scale, and ensure the delivery of carrier-grade LoRaWAN connectivity across markets.”

Chief executive at Senet, Bruce Chatterley commented: “This success is a reflection of the reliability, predictability of performance, versatility of business models and the efficiencies in network expansion that a growing number of LoRaWAN network operators, RAN partners, and applications service providers have come to expect from Senet’s network connectivity platforms.”