Volvo’s decision to deploy a private network based on the LoRa LPWAN protocol rather than 5G at a factory in Lyon, France, was greeted with surprise in some quarters. It should not have been because LPWAN as a whole has a big future in the industrial sphere alongside higher performing wireless options, increasingly 5G, as well as in more traditional sectors like environmental monitoring and smart metering. What also raised eyebrows was the decision in favor of LoRaWAN rather than one of the cellular options, given that they are more closely aligned with 5G. But even that was not a total surprise since Volvo was already a LoRa user. The company had deployed a LoRaWAN private network for a slightly different application…