SigFox Filing for Bankruptcy

In the UK it was/is pretty poor, the operator was Arqiva, who (to me) never seemed interested in attracting users other than (say) utility companies, since that was their low-hanging fruit. They barely replied to my e-mails, and I gave up trying SigFox... and in retrospect for me it was a good thing I didn't waste further time on it, since Arqiva themselves gave it up after a few years. 

It's just a plain uphill struggle to connect to SigFox if no operator nearby offers it. Whereas with LoRaWAN, it's a lot more straightforward. No nearby LoRaWAN gateways, no problem.. just pick up your own gateway, there are dozens of manufacturers to choose from, get it delivered next day and connect to any of your desired SPs, up-and-running within 24 hours. In contrast, to try to do that with Sigfox, you have to send them an e-mail and hope for a response, to see if they are interested in having you offer a SP service, if there is none in your area. No idea how long it takes after that! : (

I know others had a better experience, but the experience is very country-specific with SigFox : (

connectivity and coverage are decent here. 

I think their solution and integration options are good. I'm a bit of a fanboy. There is no alternative network at the moment.

Yep some countries had good coverage. I am curious to know whether you built your own devices for the network or purchased off the shelf stuff. For the end use if the network was available it looked attractive price wise but, from what I heard, device suppliers did not like the commercial licensing agreement and so turned to other alternatives. This in turn limited the number of off-the-shelf devices, which then limits the number of applications in the market etc.

Technically, I thought the constraints for bi-directional comms was very limiting and the messaging limit being time defined (once every 10 mins or so) was not great for all applications. Messaging cost escalated quickly outside the free limit.

Commercially, I could see it would never work based on other industries. Showing my age here, but I seem to recall back in the mid 1990's when a UK company set up base stations around the place in the early mobile phone days to compete with the telco's. It was a kind of hybrid mobile / cordless phone. They managed to rollout loads of infrastructure, lasted for a couple of years, then imploded with loads of debt. I can picture the sign (pink and purple) you'd see on corner shops but cannot remember the name.

I am curious to know whether you built your own devices for the network or purchased off the shelf stuff.

A TI sub-1 GHz radio. SigFox only accepts certified radios, with certified radio firmware.
I had to apply for a binary blob that contains the radio logic from SigFox, and a certificate custom generated by TI (based on my radio's ID), to get an active connection up.

This in turn limited the number of off-the-shelf device

They focus on industrial players. You don't need off-the -shelf devices. An certified radio ship, an agreement and the binaries/certifications listed above is it.

I thought the constraints for bi-directional comms was very limiting and the messaging limit being time defined (once every 10 mins or so) was not great for all applications. Messaging cost escalated quickly outside the free limit.

It was intentional for low volume telemetry data. Low power, low speed, low volume; good chance on successful communication, good distance.

Messaging cost escalated quickly outside the free limit.

There was (is?) no free limit. There's a temporary free license to try out the concept. These temp licenses only came with manufacturer's proof-of-concept designs.

Commercially, I could see it would never work based on other industries

There is no sub-1 GHz alternative that an industry can rely on, and that does not require to build your own antenna, at the moment. 
Mobile networks are higher power and don't have coverage in rural areas. These sub-1 GHz devices can run on the smell of an oily rag, in a forested area.

Ha, yes it depends on who "we" are. I introduced multiple "we's". So, yes if you are a developer and testing PoC there would have been a free tier, in some markets - looks like the terms depended on the local network operator. The other "we" I alluded to would of course be the device OEM who supplied the industrial user. It's my experience that industrial users tend to use commercially available off-the-shelf products to deliver a project thus would purchase these from device OEMs. I had heard that the certification or licensing process to get your COTs device Sigfox approved was not to every ones liking for the size of the market and thus I noticed that some then developed LoRaWAN alternatives.

Jan Cumps said:

It was intentional for low volume telemetry data

Yes, but it's still basically a "send and forget" model, which is not suitable for all applications.

Jan Cumps said:

There is no sub-1 GHz alternative that an industry can rely on

There is LoRaWAN. It maybe less "formalised", if that's the best word to use, than Sigfox as you don't always know who owns all the parts of the network, but it does appear that LoRa has become widely adopted.

I guess you're thinking of Rabbit phones by H3G! I never saw a sign for it where I lived. I remember when I heard of it, already the analog mobile phones looked pretty good in the movies in comparison, and then 2G came so quickly. Was a very unfortunate time to release Rabbit, but also from the news at the time it seemed like a (slightly) modified cordless home phone at best.. I think it was using the same DECT tech, so probably was combined with cordless phones functionality as you say.

Yes that's the one!

LOL. So much for my colour memory for their branding. I must be confusing them with Phones4U or something similar.

Anyhow I used to remember seeing the signs all over London - just like the picture on wikipedia. I seemed to recall that it took years for the signs to be removed. According to Wikipedia, Rabbit ceased trading in 1993.

It did spur on a response from the telco's, which was good for the customer but not so good for Rabbit. The motorola flip phone (about 1995) would have been my first mobile.

The good news for the wireless/connectivity industry is that despite Rabbit losing around $183m back then from the failure, the founders later went on to set up the Orange and 3 mobile phone networks.

So the moral is never dismiss ingenuity and resolve for something better always comes out of failure.

Forgot to mention this regional player who is making a success in the utilities industry: www.ubiik.com/weightless

Forgot to mention this regional player who is making a success in the utilities industry: www.ubiik.com/weightless