Cellular vs unlicensed — LoRaWAN, Sigfox, Zigbee

The Unlicensed Alternatives

LoRaWAN, Sigfox, and Zigbee dominate the non-cellular low-power wide-area IoT space. LoRaWAN uses sub-gigahertz unlicensed spectrum (868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in North America) with chirp spread-spectrum modulation, supporting tens of kilometres of range with self-deployed gateways. Sigfox uses ultra-narrowband 100 hertz channels and operates as a global managed network with a single subscription. Zigbee operates at 2.4 gigahertz over short ranges, used primarily for in-home and industrial mesh applications. None require an operator subscription per device, none use SIMs, and none come with…