Advantech announced on January 5 that it plans to join the LoRa Alliance, an alliance committed to developing a new industry standard to bolster the development of IoT (Internet of Things), according to a press release from Advantech. In May 2016, the company decided to deploy Semtech LoRa technology to enable long-distance RF connectivity for IoT applications. By joining the alliance, Advantech can have a complete wireless product offerings such as LoRa-enabled gateways and sensor node devices based on the M2.COM open standard to empower the company's development in Industry 4.0 and Smart City applications, according to the same source.