Netmore Group and Vantage Towers Partner to Expand Nationwide LoRaWAN ® Connectivity in Portugal

Netmore Group, a leading global LoRaWAN network operator, and Vantage Towers, a major provider of telecommunications tower infrastructure to the European market, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver national LoRaWAN connectivity across Portugal to support the digital transformation and sustainability initiatives of utilities, municipalities, and other organizations.

Like many regions across the globe, addressing water scarcity is a leading initiative across Portugal and a leading use case for low power wide area network (LPWAN) sensing technology. Record droughts this year have forced significant water restrictions and strained the operations of water utilities throughout the country, particularly in the southernmost Algarve region, where reservoirs are only 20% full on average. Additionally, Portugal loses nearly a third of its water through leaks, theft or illicit use, according to ERSAR, the country’s national water supply and sanitation agency. To combat these challenges, water utilities are adopting Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and within those initiatives, deploying LoRaWAN technology for water metering, leak detection, and to collect data identifying usage irregularities.

Through this partnership, Netmore will deploy gateways on Vantage Towers’ extensive infrastructure to support its Network-as-a-Service offering as it expands and densifies its already operational carrier-grade public LoRaWAN network in the region. Vantage Towers operates over 84,000 sites across ten European markets, including more than 3,500 towers in Portugal. It provides high-quality, resilient infrastructure for connectivity, partnering with operators to expand network coverage, capacity and services.

Netmore’s Network-as-a-Service model is designed to meet the demands of utilities, application providers, and device manufacturers. It simplifies network connectivity, making it possible for organizations to easily connect to existing LoRaWAN networks for growing use cases such as water metering, waste management, or environmental monitoring, among others, while avoiding the challenges of building out network infrastructure and the costs associated with it. Enhanced LoRaWAN connectivity in the region will enable utilities and other organizations to glean new insights from their infrastructure, operations, and assets to make data-driven decisions, increase operational efficiency, and optimize processes.

"Connectivity is essential to build an inclusive digital society and our partnership with Netmore will improve the operations of critical sectors of the economy and drive sustainability forward," said Paolo Favaro, Vantage Towers Portugal Managing Director, Vantage Towers.

LoRaWAN adoption continues to climb globally because of its technical strengths in providing long-range connectivity at a low cost, with low power consumption, and flexible deployment models. The ease of deployment and cost-effectiveness of LoRaWAN now makes it possible to build networks and add sensors even where it was previously infeasible or cost-prohibitive, which increasingly leads to it being chosen for massive IoT deployments.

"Forward-thinking organizations are seeking out new ways to achieve sustainability, optimize operations, and reduce costs – but to do that, they need robust and accessible network connectivity," said Talis Talor, managing director, Netmore Portugal. "Our partnership with Vantage Towers combines our secure, future-proof LoRaWAN network and global IoT expertise with Vantage Towers’ widespread infrastructure across Portugal, enabling digital transformation at scale to support water utilities in AMI and other use cases that ultimately improve quality of life."

About Netmore Group

Netmore Group is an IoT network operator, building the leading multinational network to advance sustainable business practices. We offer a reliable network platform and leading connectivity expertise for efficient measuring, monitoring, and optimisation of resource use. With 10 years in the industry, we have a solid track record, operating borderless on the European market and have grown to become a leading global network operator. Netmore group’s main owner is the Nordic infrastructure investor Polar Structure.

About Vantage Towers

Vantage Towers is a leading tower company in Europe with more than 84,000 sites in ten countries, connecting people, businesses and devices in cities and rural areas. The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Düsseldorf.

Vantage Towers’ portfolio includes towers, masts, rooftop sites, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. By building, operating and leasing this infrastructure to MNOs or other network providers such as IoT companies or utilities, Vantage Towers is making a significant contribution to a better-connected Europe.

While already 100% of the grid electricity that Vantage Towers uses to operate its infrastructure is obtained from renewable energy sources, green energy generation is piloted directly on site with the help of solar panels and micro wind turbines, and also hydrogen solutions are under testing. This fits well into the overall strategy of the company to drive a sustainable digitalisation in Europe and to support partners through technological innovation in decarbonisation and achieving their climate goals.

For more information, please visit our website at https://www.vantagetowers.com/en, follow us on X at @VantageTowers or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/vantagetowers.

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