Comcast plans to bring internet-of-things platform to Baltimore

Comcast is expanding a new network that’s designed to run internet-of-things devices, and Baltimore is among the cities.
According to our sister site Technical.ly Philly, the comms giant is expanding machineQ to a dozen cities after a quieter trial period in Philly, San Francisco and Chicago.
The network uses the LoRaWan protocol, which Comcast says results in a lower-power, longer range network to run sensors and other devices. The company is aiming for 50 percent coverage in the metro area. The service also includes a platform that transmits data over the devices, or to the cloud.
The idea is to make connecting to IoT less expensive, and therefore more incentive to create new uses of the technology. Some potential new uses — 15, to be exact — were on display in Philly last month at the machineQ Smart City Hackathon, which was organized by Technical.ly in partnership with Comcast.
For residents, Comcast is also rolling out gigabit internet service this summer.