Citymesh, a telecoms operator that specialises in the development and management of large-scale wireless networks and which owns 4G and 5G licences in Belgium, has announced that it is acquiring the Belgian Sigfox operator ENGIE M2M.
Citymesh currently provides connectivity in 75 cities, as well as connecting 10 exhibition halls and large industrial players such as the port of Zeebrugge and Brussels Airport. It builds private 5G networks to support automation in ports, airports, healthcare environments, warehouses, logistics and other industrial sectors, and has worked with Belgian Railways to build smart infrastructure that combines Wi-Fi, 5G, sensors and data visualisation capabilities. Citymesh also connects infrastructure such as offshore windfarms, provides in-air drone communication services and is active in the smart-city market.
With this acquisition, Citymesh adds low power and low cost so-called 0G capabilities to its portfolio of technologies that are ideal for use cases such as meter connections and track & trace applications. In Belgium, Sigfox’s LPWAN network currently connects more than 250,000 IoT devices.
“The acquisition of a national IoT network further shapes our ambition as the fourth telecom operator in the Belgian B2B market,” explained Mitch De Geest, CEO of Citymesh. He said his company was now a one-stop-shop, capable of providing solutions based on the most appropriate technology. “With this network, we can support customers’ IoT projects, using a single contract, anywhere in the world,” he added.
The acquisition follows the news that at the end of last year Citymesh gained a new majority shareholder – Cegeka. This enables the company to invest strategically and expand its portfolio. Mitch De Geest says that while Citymesh will focus on the installation, monitoring and connecting of sensors, Cegeka will work on the normalisation, consolidation and visulation of the data.
Stijn Bijnens, CEO of Cegeka added: “Our specialists in the field of data science and data intelligence can subsequently help our customers to use that data in a smart way to make better decisions.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
