Orange has continued its efforts to create an IoT network based on LoRa technologies with the objective of national coverage of metropolitan France by the end of the year.

Speaking at the Viva Technology show, Orange made a couple of big claims. The ambitions of national coverage is only the tip of the iceberg, as it also announced the first test of the LoRa Alliance standardised roaming, as well as more than 100 enterprise customers have chosen LoRaWAN connectivity with the Datavenue offer from Orange Business Services, covering almost 4000 towns across the country.

The team has also outlined plans to test interoperability of its LoRa network with that of another European operators by December, many of which have favoured the NB-IoT side of things. Vodafone in particular has been particularly vocal in its support of NB-IoT, which does beg the question as to whether Orange has backed the wrong horse. Is it persisting with the role out of LoRa out of stubbornness or has it spotted something the rest of the industry has missed?

Alongside this announcement, a partnership with Actility has also been formed with Orange batteries to secure France’s electricity grid during demand peaks and associated power surges.

“These successful interventions on over 7000 sites in a matter of minutes, clearly demonstrate the power of a Smart Grid enabled by the intelligence of the IoT to enhance the capabilities and resilience of the electricity transmission system and to protect its customers,” said Actility CTO Olivier Hersent. “We’re also creating a new opportunity for Orange to create value from its back-up capacity, which is normally a rarely-used ‘insurance policy’.”