From pagers to IoT
The Wize protocol is an Internet of Things (IoT) standard that has been created by the Wize Alliance in late 2017. It is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) which leverages the old and refurbished 169MHz frequency.
The frequency was once used for pagers, and when they became out of fashion the frequency was repurposed for gas and water metering applications under the Wireless M-Bus European standard (EN 13757-4).
Wize: an open standard for IoT
Huge corporations such as Suez and GRDF have been using the 169MHz frequency in the past 10 years for their smart meters. They have actually already developed a dense and sound network of Wize infrastructures across Europe.
Suez has deployed 3,5 millions connected water meters across Europe, with 1,5 millions in France and 1 million in Spain. GRDF has 1 million of gas meters deployed and is planning on installing 11 millions of connected gas meters by 2023.
The frequency is free to use not just for gas and water metering but also for the Internet of Things. The Wize Alliance was created to promote the Wize protocol as an international standards for Internet of Things.
AllWize is part of the Wize Alliance, an open and non-profit association that promotes Wize as an international standard for the Internet of Things. AllWize aims at becoming the reference for anyone wanting to use the Wize technology by providing solutions to connect things to the Internet using this protocol.
But what’s the difference with other IoT standards?
That’s good you ask this question! Indeed there are other LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) IoT standards, the most famous ones are LoRa, NB-IoT or Sigfox.
A big difference with other standards is that Wize is OPEN, meaning that you won’t be paying expensive fees to use this standards. With AllWize you can deploy and become the operator of your own network of very cheap gateways, and once your infrastructure is deployed you don’t have to pay any recurring fees. In addition, Wize offers you a lot of flexibility! In fact, if you don’t want to bother with deploying and managing the infrastructure, you can consider leveraging an existing Wize network (mainly in Europe, see current deployments on the map below).
In addition, the Wize technology has a battery life of up to 20 years, meaning that you could basically forget about changing the battery of your IoT device. Imagine having to change the battery of thousands of devices every few years 😱.
Another perk of the Wize protocol is that you can upgrade the devices over the network, meaning that you won’t have to be physically near your device, it can be done remotely. This may sound normal but it’s not the case with all standards…
Another benefit of Wize over other protocols is that it's bidirectional and symmetrical. The device can send and receive as many bytes to and from the cloud. On the contrary, Sigfox is not bidirectional, LoRa is but not symmetrical.
Last but not least, the Wize protocol also enables deep radio penetration, IoT experts know well how annoying it can be not to be able to place your IoT device wherever you want. With Wize you can place the connected objects under soil, asphalt, or in a basement, literally anywhere!
