According to a FierceWireless report, it appears that Comcast had completed construction of a mobile network serving the greater metro area of Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania earlier this year. For those not in the know, the company is based in Philly, and apparently, besides its wireless network in the city of brotherly love, Comcast is also busy constructing networks in Chicago in Illinois and San Francisco in California.
As explained by Comcast, the wireless networks are still undergoing testing and are not yet made available for mobile users. The cable giant further stated that the completed mobile networks run on the LoRa wireless network standard, and are specifically set up for Internet of Things (IoT) purposes.
Alex Khorram, the general manager of Comcast’s machineQ IoT business, pointed out on the company’s official website how its construction of a wireless network in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area will help facilitate the creation of a true Internet of Things ecosystem, where all sorts of connected devices can both significantly impact consumers and business establishments. Khorram further mentioned that interest has been really positive from a broad range of sectors, including Healthcare, Public Utilities, Automotive, and Consumer Electronics.
The idea of Comcast starting to construct wireless networks for IoT may be surprising to some, but perhaps it should not be. The company after all recently announced its plans of launching a mobile service brand called Xfinity Mobile, by way of a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement it had struck with Verizon Wireless. Furthermore, some may remember that Comcast was one of the top bidders during the recent spectrum incentive auction held by the Federal Communications Commission, bidding $1.7 billion on 600 MegaHertz spectrum licenses.
With regards to Comcast’s machineQ initiative, the company has not disclosed further details so far. But it did reveal back in October of last year that it was looking to join forces with Semtech, which specializes in supplying LoRa equipment. The aim of the collaboration is to conduct testing of LoRa technology for the purpose of exploring IoT applications for enterprises. These tests were set for Philadelphia and San Francisco, specifically leaning towards aspects such as utility metering, environmental tracking, and asset tracking. If the tests go well, Comcast would then proceed to rolling LoRa networks and services commercially across other markets under the machineQ brand. The company hopes to finish constructing these wireless networks for IoT within a period of 18 to 30 months.
