Why the European LoRaWAN Sector Is Shifting Toward Fewer, Larger Operators

Consolidation, interoperability demands, and regulatory pressure are reshaping how Massive IoT networks are built and operated across Europe

• Europe’s LoRaWAN and LPWAN market is moving from fragmentation toward consolidation as customers demand scale, interoperability, and carrier-grade reliability
• Mergers and acquisitions, such as Netmore’s purchase of Actility, are combining network operations with platform control to support cross-border Massive IoT deployments
• Roaming, interoperability hubs, and hybrid coverage models are becoming central to reducing national and platform silos
• Regulatory pressure, including EU cybersecurity requirements, is raising the bar for long-term device management and operational maturity
• Consolidation offers clearer benefits for utilities, smart cities, and industrial IoT, while also reshaping competition and ecosystem dynamics across Europe

(NEWS) STOCKHOLM / PARIS, 26-Jan-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — When Netmore Group announced it was acquiring France-based Actility, the companies framed it as a step toward ending years of fragmentation in the LoRaWAN ecosystem. In Europe, that framing resonates: low-power wide-area networking (LPWAN) has grown through a patchwork of national rollouts, differing platform choices, and uneven roaming and service guarantees—conditions that can slow down cross-border deployments and complicate procurement for utilities, cities, and industrial groups.

Netmore’s purchase of Actility—developer of the widely used ThingPark network platform and a long-time LoRaWAN standard-setter—lands amid a broader European push toward fewer, larger, more integrated LPWAN players that can deliver continental coverage, consistent operations, and security update discipline demanded by regulators and enterprise buyers.

Why Europe’s LPWAN became fragmented in the first place

Europe’s early LPWAN boom was shaped by two parallel tracks:

• National public networks built by telecom operators or specialist providers, often optimized for domestic coverage and pricing.
• Private and vertical networks (utilities, campuses, industrial sites) installed independently, frequently tied to specific platforms and device ecosystems.

LoRaWAN’s open-standard approach helped accelerate adoption, but it also encouraged a diverse supplier landscape—multiple network operators, many solution integrators, and competing network-server platforms. In markets like France and Spain, industry bodies have pointed to millions of connected LoRa/LoRaWAN assets and multiple nationwide networks, underscoring both adoption and the “many networks” reality.

Meanwhile, adjacent LPWAN technologies have had their own consolidation shocks. Sigfox, once one of Europe’s best-known LPWAN players, entered insolvency proceedings and was acquired by UnaBiz—an episode that highlighted how hard it can be for standalone LPWAN networks to sustain long-term investment without scale or diversified revenue.

The new consolidation logic: scale, roaming, and “carrier-grade” expectations

Across Europe, large buyers increasingly want LPWAN to behave more like mainstream telecom infrastructure:

• Predictable service levels (SLAs), resilient operations, and long-term network investment
• Cross-border reach for asset tracking and multi-country industrial deployments
• Interoperability and roaming between networks, including between public and private deployments
• Security maintenance that supports multi-year device lifecycles

These demands reward operators that can combine: (1) infrastructure footprint, (2) platform control, and (3) an ecosystem of device and solution partners.

Netmore–Actility: what changes in practical terms

Netmore says the Actility acquisition brings LoRaWAN deployments in more than 100 countries, relationships with more than 50 LoRaWAN network operators, and a total of over 14 million contracted IoT devices under management across the combined base.

For European customers, the more meaningful shift is how the combined group positions itself:

• From operator to operator-plus-platform: Actility’s ThingPark platform is deeply embedded across public and private LoRaWAN deployments, particularly among telecom operators and large enterprises.
• From national footprints to ecosystem interconnection: Actility’s ThingPark Exchange has been marketed as a roaming/peering hub that enables data exchange and device activation across networks. That kind of interconnection is central to reducing “border friction” for IoT solutions.

The company statements (Business Wire, EuropaWire and Yahoo! Finance), emphasize upgrades that matter to utilities and regulated environments—high-availability on-premise network options, smart-metering protocol support, and firmware update tooling (also tied in their materials to upcoming EU cybersecurity requirements).

Netmore’s recent deal streak shows the playbook: expand footprint, then deepen vertical capability

The Actility deal also fits a pattern visible in Netmore’s 2025 moves:

• Brazil commercial takeover from American Tower (ATC): Netmore said it assumed customer relationships and commercial operations for ATC’s LoRaWAN network in Brazil, positioning it as a “carrier-grade” operator with SLAs. While outside Europe, it illustrates Netmore’s strategy of acquiring operational control to scale networks and customer bases.
• Arson Metering acquisition (Spain): Netmore acquired Arson Metering, a utility-focused specialist with deployments across hundreds of municipalities and a large installed base of managed water and gas meters—boosting Netmore’s utility depth in Southern Europe.

Put together, these deals suggest Netmore is trying to solve the “two-sided” LPWAN scaling problem: horizontal expansion (more networks/regions/operators) plus vertical specialization (utility-grade operations, metering, analytics, support).

Roaming and hybrid coverage: why interoperability is becoming the battleground

For LoRaWAN in Europe, consolidation isn’t only about M&A—interoperability is a parallel force.

Actility has positioned ThingPark Exchange as a way to connect networks and simplify multi-country device operation. Swisscom, for example, has publicized work with Actility and EchoStar Mobile to extend LoRaWAN reach with a satellite component and enable roaming through ThingPark Exchange—an example of how “coverage” increasingly means a blend of terrestrial and non-terrestrial connectivity.

In the Netherlands, KPN’s LoRa offering illustrates another reality: national telecoms often run LoRaWAN as part of a wider connectivity portfolio, sometimes supported by established platform vendors (including ThingPark in KPN’s documentation and ecosystem references).

For enterprises and public-sector buyers, these developments matter because they can reduce vendor lock-in at the country level and make cross-border expansions less like a fresh procurement exercise each time.

Regulation and security: the Cyber Resilience Act raises the operational bar

Europe’s regulatory direction adds pressure for professionalized lifecycle management. The EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is intended to require digital products to be designed, updated, and maintained to address cybersecurity risks over time—placing more emphasis on vulnerability handling and update mechanisms.

For LPWAN operators and platform providers, this regulatory momentum strengthens the case for:

• managed firmware update capabilities,
• clear responsibilities across supply chains (device makers, platform vendors, network operators),
• and the operational maturity to support long-lived deployments (utilities and cities often plan on decade-scale device life).

This is one reason cybersecurity language is showing up more prominently in LPWAN press materials—especially around firmware updates and device management.

What consolidation could mean for Europe’s IoT customers

Potential upsides

• Simpler multi-country deployments: fewer handoffs between platforms/operators; more consistent provisioning and support
• More predictable operations: greater ability to offer SLAs, redundancy, and regulated-environment options
• Stronger roaming: hubs and peering models that reduce fragmentation without requiring a single monolithic network

Potential risks

• Less pricing pressure in some markets: consolidation can reduce the number of independent network options
• Ecosystem gatekeeping: platform owners can shape device certification, marketplace access, and integration priorities
• Innovation tradeoffs: standardization and operational rigor can crowd out smaller experimental deployments—unless private networks remain easy to stand up and interconnect

Europe’s LPWAN market is shifting from a growth phase driven by many local networks and platform choices into a maturity phase where scale, interoperability, security maintenance, and long-term service assurances carry more weight. The Netmore–Actility deal is notable not only for its headline device numbers, but because it combines operator muscle with platform influence—a pairing that could accelerate cross-border LoRaWAN integration in Europe, especially for utilities, smart infrastructure, and industrial users.