A few days ago, on November 28, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued announcement No. 52. The main content of the announcement involves the definition of the scope of micro-power equipment, the use of wireless frequencies, and other requirements, as well as some management regulations and measures, a total of 10 contents.

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What's wrong with LoRa?
Written By Calio Huang
A few days ago, on November 28, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
issued announcement No. 52. The main content of the announcement involves the definition of
the scope of micro-power equipment, the use of wireless frequencies, and other requirements,
as well as some management regulations and measures, a total of 10 contents.
And Article 7 is very crucial. The original text is a bit long. In simple terms, the state clearly
stipulates that 433MHz does not belong to China's ISM band.
What is the ISM band? The ISM band is the (industrial, scientific, and medical) band. In order to
prevent public equipment in the industrial, scientific, and medical fields from applying for
frequency bands, countries around the world have set up some frequency bands. As "frequency
bands that can be used without authorization," they are ISM frequency bands, which is what we
often call free bands. Like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, both use the ISM band.
What problems will the 433MHz band be taken back by the country? What is the relationship
with LoRa?
Quite simply, LoRa, as an IoT communication technology, will use the 433MHz band. Lora does
not have its own dedicated band, so it has always used the free band (ISM band). 433MHz
belongs to the ISM band in some European countries.
If 433Mhz is not a free band in China, then LoRa cannot use it. So, does it mean that the death
sentence of LoRa was pronounced in Announcement 52?
Before answering this question, let us first review what kind of communication technology LoRa
is.
The basics of LoRa
Lora is an ultra-long-range wireless transmission scheme based on spread-spectrum technology.
It belongs to the Internet of Things technology.
Its name is derived from the abbreviation of "Long Range". As you can see from the name, its
biggest feature is its long distance.
At the beginning, LoRa's prototype technology was developed by a French company Cyclo. In
2012, the company was acquired by Semtech in the United States for about $ 5 million. Based on
this technology, Semtech introduced the current LoRa.
In August 2013, Semtech released to the industry a new type of chip-based on ultra-long-distance
low-power data transmission technology below 1GHz, which is our LoRa chip.
Once LoRa was launched, it won wide attention with its amazing sensitivity (-148dbm), powerful
anti-interference ability, and excellent system capacity performance.

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It can well realize long-distance communication, long battery life, large system capacity, and low
hardware cost. And these are exactly what the Internet of Things (IoT) needs.
Table source: Global IoT Watch
After launching LoRa, Semtech spared no effort to promote LoRa technology.
In 2015, Semtech led the establishment of the International LoRa Alliance. The founding
members include heavyweight giants such as IBM and Cisco, as well as the well-known
semiconductor manufacturer MicroChip. In addition, the alliance also attracted many
telecommunications operators, such as: Singapore Telecom SingTel, KLM, Swisscom, Belgacom.
Whether a technology can be fired depends on whether its ecological camp is strong.
When the International LoRa Alliance was established, it paid particular attention to ecosystem
construction. Driven by the alliance, LoRa's industry chain is quite mature, and there are related
manufacturers from the underlying chips and modules to equipment manufacturing and system
integration.
On this basis, LoRa has developed rapidly.
According to the latest data, the global LoRa Alliance has grown to more than 500 members, 121
operators have deployed LoRa networks, and there are almost 100 million LoRa nodes worldwide.
Lora is available in countries such as the United States, France, Germany, Australia, and India.
KPN Telecom in the Netherlands and SK Telecom in South Korea deployed LoRa networks
covering the whole country in the first half of 2016 to provide LoRa-based IoT services.
Representatives of the main members of the LoRa Alliance
In China, in January 2016, ZTE led and initiated the establishment of the "China LoRa Application
Alliance (CLAA)" to promote the application and development of the LoRa industry chain in China.
At present, the alliance has more than 1,200 members. In 2018, China's LoRa chip shipments
accounted for more than half of the world's, and China has become the largest market for LoRa
industry ecology.
Lora's network architecture is relatively simple: the terminal nodes collect data, then send the
data to the gateway base station, then aggregate it to the network server, and finally send it to
the application server.
The fateful LoRa
Back to the original question.
Is the 433MHz disablement equal to the death sentence of LoRa?
The answer is-no.
Because LoRa uses more than 433MHz. To be precise, the 433, 470, 868, and 915 MHz frequency
bands can all be LoRa frequency bands.
What frequency band does LoRa use in China? 470-510MHz.
Announcement 52 states: "470-510MHz", "limited to networking applications in small buildings
such as buildings, residential quarters, and villages, and a single channel transmission at any
time."
Although there are restrictions, use is not prohibited. Therefore, Bulletin 52 did not sentence
LoRa to death.
If you really want to say the death penalty, another announcement from the Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology in December 2017 really really completely blocked LoRa.

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In December 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Technical
Requirements for Micro-power Short-range Radio Transmission Equipment (Consultation Draft)".
In the opinion draft, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology limited the
470-510MHz frequency band used for civilian radio metering, that is, the frequency band used by
LoRa for networking, which is limited to single-frequency points and cannot be used for
networking applications.
If this opinion draft becomes an official document, then LoRa is really not going to work.
In order to save LoRa, all LoRa-related companies at home and abroad held a group to
communicate and negotiate with the Radio Management Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology. Finally, after one year, the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology improved the consultation draft on November 28, 2018 on the basis of carefully
reviewing and analyzing the feedback and suggestions, relaxing the restrictions and allowing
470-510MHz for networking applications.
On April 2, 2019, the Radio Regulatory Authority also specially hosted a small-scale seminar (with
more than 20 companies participating) to discuss the industry's opinions on the processing of the
feedback information after the second "draft for comments" at the end of 2018. .
After that, LoRa was relieved and survived tenaciously.
The announcement No. 52 this time is actually consistent with the previous documents of the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and it still gives LoRa a way of life.
The future of LoRa
Lora's fate is so many, it has a lot to do with its own positioning, but also has a lot to do with its
competitors.
As one of the LPWAN (low power consumption and wide coverage Internet of Things)
technologies, LoRa's biggest rival is, of course, NB-IoT.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other short distances are WLAN Internet of Things
Lora, NB-IoT, etc. are LPWAN Internet of Things
The technical characteristics of NB-IoT and LoRa are very similar, both are low power
consumption and wide coverage, suitable for mass connection scenarios. However, NB-IoT is for
operators to build networks and provide services, while LoRa is a self-built network.
Many people think that it's too much trouble to build a network. Isn't it good to use the carrier
network directly?
not always.
For many companies, they don't want to give their data to operators. Moreover, if the network
within the factory area is deployed by itself, it will obviously have the autonomy, be more flexible,
and be at ease.
Because of user needs, LoRa has received support from many companies after the launch, and
the industry chain has also developed rapidly.
At home, Ali and ZTE are LoRa's most loyal supporters and promoters. Tencent later joined the
LoRa camp, and even China Unicom as an operator also supported LoRa. In 2018, it released the
first national-level LoRa platform.
The LoRa camp's strategy is simple-work hard, build the network, use it, and speak on the facts. If
the LoRa network forms a scale effect and the industry chain is strong enough, it will naturally

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increase the policy survival space.
One of the main reasons why LoRa is controversial is its Achilles heel: chips.
The LoRa chip is the starting point and core of the entire LoRa industry chain. The core patent of
LoRa chip underlying technology is in the hands of a Semtech company. Chip or module
companies use Semtech to authorize IP for LoRa chip development or directly use Semtech chips
for SIP-level chip development. At present, only STMicroelectronics (STM) and Alibaba Cloud IoT
(the chip is implemented by ASR) have obtained LoRa's IP authorization. The LoRa wafer method
introduces SIP-grade chips or modules.
And this Semtech company is an American company.
Don't say anything more? In short, this issue is very sensitive.
However, supporters of the LoRa camp believe that Semtech's control of LoRa is not as arbitrary
as imagined, and it is impossible to block the confession. I studied their reasons carefully and
found them not very convincing. I have reservations here.
In response to Semtech's situation, companies like Shanghai Panqi Microelectronics are doing
relevant alternatives. I think it may be a good way. If it can be controlled independently, an ad
hoc network scheme like LoRa should be more promising. At least the odds of survival in policy
are much greater.
In contrast, the situation in NB-IoT is much better.
Today, unlike the past, NB-IoT has now transformed into a realistic standard for 5G mMTC
scenarios. In fact, it means that NB-IoT is 5G. Guzheng Miaohong, 3GPP pro-son, open ecology,
flexible evolution, national promotion, operator platform, these advantages of NB-IoT are not
comparable to LoRa.
In fact, the two gradually evolved from a competitive relationship to a common development
relationship. Anyway, it is still the same as the relationship between data services and Wi-Fi.
NB-IoT is difficult to completely eliminate LoRa, and LoRa cannot shake the status of NB-IoT. That
can only be the case, their own development, and long-term coexistence.
Regarding Announcement No. 52, the interpretations of the parties are different. Proponents of
LoRa believe that this is "the boots have finally fallen down" and there is no blockade, indicating
that the country is supporting LoRa. Opponents of LoRa believe that the announcement further
restricts the living space of LoRa, but it only opens up the Internet and leaves some room.
Lora's policy outlook is still uncertain, and this state is likely to continue. For the LoRa camp, this
is not the time to open the champagne. In order for LoRa to survive, it will take a long time to
persist and work hard.