In 2011, a UK start-up called Neul proposed a low power wireless protocol to run in the briefly fashionable TV white spaces spectrum. This would target long range applications from rural broadband to smart metering. Neul had made the wrong spectrum choice and was hedging its bets on the target market, so the auspices were not good, and indeed, the company struggled to gain market presence, and was acquired by Huawei almost a year ago. However, the company’s legacy may prove far more important than that short history implies since it has, indirectly at least, given rise to two candidates to be the leading LPWA (low power wide area) network technology in the emerging smart city market. Neul itself is…