Why A Private LoRa Network Was Selected Over A Public Telco?

In the far west region of Brittany, France, you'll find a collection of coastal towns to make up the Department of Finistre. The distribution of energy among these town councils is managed by a public entity known as STEF. The entity wanted to transform its streetlights with IoT, but it lacked a telco network to do it. So they built one from scratch, a private LoRa network that now serves a range of applications, smart lighting to smart waste to connected buildings. It's an interesting project and one we don't often hear about, a private LoRa network scaling to this size of a territory and supporting this many verticals. But in order for it to even get off the ground, the entity needed to work around a French law that prohibits many organizations from developing their own telecom networks. Emmanuel Query, who leads the digital and data initiatives for Steph, explains. she says, who can or not open their telecom network? And public service can do it if there is a carence of private initiative. Some public service, but not all. The region, the department and the community, we can't. So our network, it is for us and for our adhérents. But we can't concurrencer a private network. by offering a telecom service. STEPH operates and maintains the streetlights in 203 councils within the Finisterre department. That amounts to 78,000 streetlights and 3,600 streetlight cabinets. A lot of infrastructure to connect under one network, especially considering that STEPH also contracts and monitors the electricity distribution utility for 269 councils within the department. First, because it's just small numbers of data. that we don't need a 4G or 5G network to be able to do what we have to do. It consumes a little bit of energy, so it's also coherent with what we own and our other axes of work. And why proprietaires? Because we are a territory that is not so well covered by the LoRa, because we are a very littoral territory. But there was also a issue of coverage. For example, we chose a broad scenario, that each captor speaks at least two antennas. This is our choice, our own, to guarantee and secure the fact that everything works well and all the time. To take the example of the public light, but we can see it for other subjects, and we can see it for other subjects. public is quite major. We have a maintenance of our network, with a system of astreintes extremely short, with a delay of intervention extremely short. So today, if we bring a public service to our adhérents by the network of this network, we need to bring a network of fiable. As I said earlier, the coverage that could offer a network like Objedus, but others were not satisfied. Now the entity spent about a million and a half euros on this network, which was half funded by the European Union. It consists of four layers, the applications, the IT infrastructure, the gateways, and sensors. Gateways are deployed by staff who then charges a service fee to the councils for applications. And sensors are split. Both staff and the councils can deploy and manage their own equipment. C 'est -à -dire qu 'aujourd 'hui, le groupement va déployer les antennes, assure l 'exploitation et maintenance des antennes, des capteurs qu 'ils ont installés. of all the software logic and informatics, but we have the possibility, in case of the case, to install the captors that are not part of the captors that they propose, or to install the captors that they propose by the exploitants of our network, for example, public clairage. So, after, we function by command. For example, For the deployment of antennas, we launched a commandment for each site where we would install the antennas. There was a commandment for study, and then there was a commandment for installation, furniture, and service. Once that was done, it was re-recepted. But then there was a contract of exploitation of all of these elements, and then we were in the final reception of the different materials. So there's a contract of exploitation for the server, for the application, and then with the antennas, etc. And that leads to our next key differentiator here. Steph is gradually deploying this network, installing gateways as the need unfolds. That compares to other networks where gateways are installed all at once, the network is fully up and running, and then leaders are trying to figure out what services to offer. Configure the platforms. the storage servers, the applications logicielles first. So we have this base, which is worth a million, a little more than a million, a million five million. Then we have the antennas on the island of Wesson. It's easy to find, you go the most west or the most east of New York to Europe. And before arriving to us, there is a small island, Wesson, at the entrance of the Manche, which has the particularity of not being connected to the European network. electricity. So when you put renewable energy or when you reduce the consumption, you can see immediately on live on the network what it does. So it's extremely interesting to experiment also the tele -gestion smart grid on a territory like that. And then we have, like our pilot site, 24 communes who are north of Brest, on the west of the department, where we also have to finish the deployment and where it works. Now it's time to dig into the applications, 24 gateways have been installed so far, and as we mentioned earlier, the first application centered around streetlights. each candelabra 121 candelabra, and so the interest for us on the command and it's probably on the command that we will install the most of the captors. The goal is to be able, from home and from our GMAO, because in fact, the data will be mounted from the captor to the antenna, from the antenna to the server, and from the server, there is a bridge that is The software has not only given staff a new level of insights into what's happening out of the network, but they also now can offer a preventative maintenance. on the ground, we know that such lamp, such lamp, such lamp, such equipment is arrived at 7 ,000 hours, at 70 ,000 hours, I don't know, and we know that we have seen micro coupures or incidents, we need to change. And so instead of being in response, we intervene in front of us. A second application looks into a building's energy consumption, something Emmanuel expects to be scaled out. given the fact that France has become increasingly more interested in air quality and reducing pollution. Sensors were installed at gas, water and electric meters, as well as environmental sensors that study temperature, humidity and occupancy levels. We have deployed on more than 15 buildings today, and the goal is to be able to deploy further. And we will experiment on the pilotage of electric equipment in the buildings. So there, it's not only the amount of information that I can consult on my web interface, but I can also be able to give orders of coupures, of radiators, such as, in the buildings. to be able to manage my building here. Steph also mounted sensors on water meters and district meters in a push to reduce and detect leaks, increase network performance, and more accurately report water consumption for invoicing. Another application centers around waste collection. Steph installs sensors at the voluntary drop-off sites where you might dispose of recyclables or cardboard, sites that are typically emptied by a truck every two weeks. When the cars go in tournée of college, to be able to reorganize the tournée in terms of what was planned every week so that the entire network would be closed every week, but in terms of the level of replacement, and so not going, especially, and that's where it's interesting, on rural areas. Looking ahead, Step will install a smart parking system placing sensors at the entrance of councils to better direct drivers. It hopes to connect the system with ways or other mapping applications and also wants to connect information on its electric vehicle chargers. It already has installed 200 EV chargers across its areas. It's the latest sign of a growing trend, public entities choosing to deploy their own networks as they look to benefit from rising use cases involving IoT. And as a result, traditional telcos are being cut from the deal. For more coverage like this, be sure to stick with Current Insights and send us your questions. to with the link below.