Tata Communications is building India's first Internet of Things (IoT) network that will allow millions of connected devices such as smart meters to talk to each other wirelessly even if the device is placed deep inside a building or 50 meters under water.

The company is deploying the Internet of Things network with the help of Low Power Wide Area Network based on LoRa technology for connected devices and IoT applications across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

“This will be world's largest IoT network,” Tri Pham, chief strategy officer at Tata Communications told BusinessLine. “We see a massive need for a new smart network to enable intelligent solutions for a variety of M2M applications to facilitate a simpler and smarter way of life and at a lower cost of ownership. These trials are just the beginning; we intend to deploy this network across India and invite customers with IoT projects to work with us to test it, end-to-end.”

LoRa is a wireless communication technology dedicated to the IoT / Machine to Machine (M2M) communications network. The new network is a super low-power, secure, bidirectional, communication solution, the company said. The first phase targets to cover 400 million people across Tier 1, 2, 3 and 4 cities.

IoT is getting widely adopted across sectors where enterprises and government agencies are using it to monitor electricity meters, industrial machinery, leakages in oil pipelines and even in improving the efficiency of electrical grids.

Gartner forecasts that there will be 4.9 billion connected things globally in 2015, reaching 25 billion by 20202 - more than three times the number of people on earth today.

Unlike GSM and WiFi networks, the LoRa network can enable communications in deep water and up to 50 metres underground. This makes it suitable for use in metro stations and car parks. The signal of the network is extremely strong, cutting through up to seven walls inside buildings and has a 15km range.

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