Wi-SUN Alliance marks a year of strong growth in membership and 91 million devices awarded globally

Wi-SUN Alliance, a global ecosystem of member companies seeking to accelerate the implementation of open standards-based Field Area Networks (FAN) and the Internet of Things (IoT), has marked a year of strong growth in its membership and a number of major milestones, including the launch of its FAN certification program and the first FAN certified products.

Global membership, which includes service providers, product vendors, utilities, municipalities, local government, academia and other enterprises, has grown with 50 new members joining in the past 12 months, taking total membership to 227. Rethink Technology Research estimates that companies in the Wi-SUN ecosystem will see compound annual growth of 20 percent, as mesh network technology reaches into new verticals, including telecoms, and different business models emerge.

Wi-SUN Alliance also welcomed Trilliant a global provider of secure, enterprise-wide smart energy communications solutions, as a new Promoter member and to the Wi-SUN Alliance Board.

Wi-SUN Alliance has also seen its influence grow, with more than 91 million Wi-SUN capable devices (Navigant Research) awarded globally as service providers and city developers deploy new IoT applications and services for smart cities and utilities. Cities including the City of London, Copenhagen, Glasgow, Paris and Miami use a Wi-SUN compatible network, with Wi-SUN regarded as the communications infrastructure of choice for very large-scale rollouts. It is increasingly specified by utilities and city developers to enable interoperable, multi-service and secure wireless networks.

Major milestones include:
• October 2018 marked the launch of the Wi-SUN Field Area Networks (FAN) Certification Program, which certifies devices for use by utilities and service providers to simplify and support large-scale, outdoor networks for smart cities and other IoT rollouts. Wi-SUN certifies products based on their compliance to a communications profile derived from open standards and their ability to interoperate with other Wi-SUN certified products.

• February 2019 saw the first Wi-SUN FAN certified products come to market, from Cisco, Itron, Kyoto University, Landis+Gyr, Nissin Systems, Renesas and ROHM, many of which were displayed publicly for the first time at industry event, DistribuTECH in the US.

• Wi-SUN Alliance and Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) announced plans to work together to maximise interoperability, portability, security and privacy for the industrial Internet.

Phil Beecher, President and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance, comments: “We have been quietly going about our business for many years, but this past 12 months has seen much of this work come to fruition. With higher IoT adoption rates, particularly with smart city and utilities increasingly rolling out applications such as advanced metering infrastructure, distribution automation, and smart home automation, Wi-SUN Alliance members are seeing growing demand for their products.

“The launch of Wi-SUN FAN and the first FAN-certified products is a game changer in the market, and we are seeing growing interest from organizations around the world wanting to be part of our unique and influential ecosystem. We’re at the forefront of wireless communications innovation in cities, utilities and other industries and will continue to be so as the market matures”.

Wi-SUN Alliance offers four levels of membership: Promoters, Contributors, Observers and Adopters, and has members in over 25 countries, including Asia Pacific (Australia, China, India, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Mexico, USA), Europe (Denmark, Finland, France, Spain, Sweden, UK) and South Africa.

Membership is open to all industry stakeholders, and includes silicon chip vendors, product vendors, services providers, utilities, universities, enterprises, municipalities and local government organizations.

To learn more about Wi-SUN Alliance, watch members discuss the benefits of membership: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDwUpdP9MOQ&feature=youtu.be