If there was any doubt that LoRaWAN® has secured its place in smart metering, Enlit Europe 2025 put that to rest. Walking the exhibition floor, the message was unmistakable in the utility and metering market, LoRaWAN plays the role of a mainstream standard, particularly for water metering, and it's gaining serious momentum in gas metering.
A De Facto Standard in Action
The numbers tell the story. Over 30 LoRa Alliance® members exhibited LoRaWAN technology, with 15+ Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) demonstrating water meters and 12+ showcasing gas metering solutions all featuring ready-to-deploy commercial products.
The exhibitor lineup read like an industry who's who. Water metering leaders such as Zenner, Itron, Diehl Metering, Honeywell, Axioma, Baylan, Landis+Gyr, Iskraemeco, JANZ, Apator Miitors, ADD-Grup, B-Meters, Maddalena, and others from overseas, showcased their water metering solutions featuring LoRaWAN.
What caught our attention was also the increase in talent showcasing gas metering. Top industry leaders such as Zenner, Honeywell, Sagemcom, Wasion, Goldcard, Holley, Kaifa, Flonidan, Friendcom, MeterSit, AIoTWaves (Grupo Amper), and Spark, signaling that LoRaWAN's trajectory in gas metering is accelerating.
Beyond meters, the ecosystem was fully represented by gateway manufacturers and network operators like Netmore, which has recently increased its focus on serving the metering market. Just a few weeks prior to the show, Netmore announced the acquisition of Arson Metering, a leader in end-to-end smart meter platform solutions in the Spanish market. This acquisition highlighted the infrastructure maturity that makes large-scale deployments possible. The LoRa Alliance booth itself became a mini-conference highlight, with six members co-located in the same area (Kerlink, Tektelic, MultiTech, JANZ, ZENNER, and Semtech), each bringing their unique perspective, from edge intelligence and gateway infrastructure to real-world deployment lessons from the field.
Meeting Market Demands: Dual Connectivity Solutions
At Enlit it became clear that European markets need dual connectivity. Utilities and regulators increasingly want flexibility and higher infrastructure resilience. In many tenders a key requirement is dual connectivity combining LoRaWAN for fixed network collection with the traditional Wireless M-Bus (wM-Bus) for walk-by and drive-by collection or for a second network option. In addition to the compliance to European standard of wM-Bus and Open Metering System (OMS), it gives utilities more flexibility and better resilience options for different deployment scenarios, backup connectivity, and gradual network transitions.
At the Semtech booth, we showcased exactly this capability with three live demonstrations
for LR1121 and Gen 4 LoRa® chips featuring the new LoRa Plus™ LR2021:
- Dual connectivity with wM-Bus and LoRaWAN – partnering with EMBIT and WEBDYN to show how a simulated meter leveraging LR1121 can communicate seamlessly over both protocols, switching from one mode to the other without the need to go into network re-join processes. While EMBIT provided the wireless module integrating the dual protocol stack, WEBDYN showed their new wM-Bus collector “Webdyn Easy” based on the new Gen 4 LR2021
- Stackforce wM-Bus implementation for LoRa Plus LR2021
- Wi-SUN connectivity for LoRa Plus LR2021 – developed in collaboration with EXEGIN to address markets, like e-metering, where Wi-SUN is a more suitable protocol of choice
These weren't concept demos — they were production-ready solutions showing that the technology catalog is here, today, to support whatever connectivity mix the market demands.
What This Means for the Wireless RF Industry
Enlit Europe 2025 reinforced something fundamental seen in many European deployments: LoRaWAN isn't competing for a seat at the table anymore, it has a permanent chair. For water metering, it's already the leading choice for connectivity. For gas metering, the momentum is undeniable. And with multi-protocol solutions now ready for deployment, utilities have the flexibility to design networks that match their specific requirements without compromise.
If you're a meter OEM or system integrator evaluating connectivity options, the takeaway is clear: the ecosystem is mature, the technology is proven, and the market has made its choice.
To learn more about Semtech’s technology solutions for smart water or gas metering, visit our website.
Semtech®, LoRaWAN®, LoRa®, LoRa Plus™, LoRaWAN® and the Semtech logo are registered trademarks or service marks of Semtech Corporation and its affiliates. Other product or service names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.