Sierra Wireless (a subsidiary of Semtech Corporation) is a Canadian multinational wireless communications equipment designer, manufacturer and services provider headquartered in

Richmond, British Columbia Richmond is a city in the coastal Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly a suburban city, it occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough, New Westminster, Queensborough), between the two estuarine dis ...

, Canada. It also maintains offices and operations in the United States, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, France, Australia and New Zealand. The company sells mobile computing and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications products that work over cellular networks, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G

mobile broadband Mobile broadband is the marketing term for Wireless broadband, wireless Internet access via mobile network, mobile (cell) networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a Tablet computer, tablet/smartp ...

wireless routers and gateways, modules, as well as software, tools, and services. Sierra Wireless products and technologies are used in a variety of markets and industries, including automotive and

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

, field service,

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

, industrial and

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

mobile computing Mobile computing is human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage and allow for transmission of data, which can include voice and video transmissions. Mobile computing involves mobile commun ...

and consumers, networking, sales and payment, and security. It also maintains a network of experts in mobile broadband and M2M integration to support customers worldwide. The company's products are sold directly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), as well as indirectly through distributors and resellers.

History

Sierra Wireless was founded in 1993 in Vancouver, Canada. In August 2003, it completed an acquisition of privately held, high-speed

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communicatio ...

wireless modules supplier, AirPrime, issuing approximately 3.7 million shares to AirPrime shareholders. On March 6, 2007, the company announced its purchase of

Hayward, California Hayward is a city located in Alameda County, California, United States, in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area, and the third largest in ...

-based AirLink Communications, a privately held developer of fixed, portable, and mobile wireless data solutions. Prior to the May 2007 completion of its sale to Sierra Wireless for a total of $27 million in cash and stock, AirLink had reported $24.8 million in revenues and gross margin of 44 percent. In August 2008, Sierra Wireless purchased the assets of Junxion, a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

based producer of

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

-based mobile

wireless access point In Computer networking device, computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP) (also just access point (AP)) is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network or wireless network. As a standalone ...

s and network routers for enterprise and government customers. In December 2008, Sierra Wireless made a friendly all-cash bid to acquire Wavecom, a French M2M wireless technology developer. The sale was completed for $275 million. In August 2012, the company acquired SAGEMCOM's M2M business in a cash transaction of EUR44.9 million plus assumed liabilities. In November 2012, Sierra Wireless was recognized as an M2M market leader by market research and intelligence firm, ABI Research. Based on the company's aggregated revenues, ABI found that Sierra Wireless held a 34 percent share of the M2M module market. In January 2013, Sierra Wireless sold all assets and operations related to its AirCard business to NETGEAR, Inc. for $138 million in cash plus approximately $6.5 million in assumed liabilities. In April 2017, Sierra Wireless acquired GlobalTop Technology's GNSS embedded modules business for $3.2 million. In December, 2017, Sierra Wireless acquired Numerex, in a deal estimated at US$107 million."Numerex Corp_ Announces Shareholder Approval of Merger Agreement,"
December 06, 2017, '' Globe Newswire,'' retrieved 2018-10-17press release: "Sierra Wireless, Inc. Completes Acquisition of Numerex Corp,"
December 07, 2017, Sierra Wireless, Inc., (als

at Yahoo Finance ''

Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...

'' retrieved 2018-10-17 In 2020, Sierra Wireless completed the acquisition of M2M Group in Australia for US$18.4 million and M2M One in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

for US$3.5 million. In the same year, the company sold its automotive business for US$144 million. In April 2020, Sierra Wireless appointed Samuel Cochrane as Chief Financial Officer. In November 2020, Sierra Wireless sold its automotive modules division to Rolling Wireless. In July 2021, Sierra Wireless appointed Phil Brace as CEO. In August 2022,

Semtech Semtech Corporation is an American supplier of analog signal, analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms for consumer, enterprise computing, communications and industrial end-markets. It is based in Camarillo, California, Cam ...

agreed to buy Sierra Wireless in an all-cash transaction valued at US$1.2 billion including debt. The acquisition was completed in January 2023.

Patents and technology

Sierra Wireless has been granted more than 550 unique patents for an array of technologies ranging from built-in antennas and product form factors, to battery power usage and management and network efficiency improvements. The company currently has patents pending in the US,

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Products

Sierra Wireless offers IoT products and services including the following: * AirLink, wireless gateways used in industrial, enterprise, and automotive applications. AirLink intelligent gateways and routers use embedded intelligence and the ALEOS Application Framework to support remote management, control, and configuration, and application services for vertical market solutions. * Embedded modules providing cellular connectivity for wireless mobile computing and M2M often used by device manufacturers to bring new 3G - 5G,

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

, and

devices to market via PCI Express MiniCards,

surface-mount Surface-mount technology (SMT), originally called planar mounting, is a method in which the electrical components are mounted directly onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB). An electrical component mounted in this manner is referred ...

modules, modem-only functionality, and programmable devices. * AirVantage, a

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

-based application facilitating M2M service delivery consisting of the AirVantage Management Service M2M device management application, and AirVantage Enterprise Platform for collecting, sharing, and integration of machine data using

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

standards, as well as development and deployment of M2M applications. * Octave, The All-in-One Edge-to-Cloud Solution for connecting industrial assets. * Global Connectivity Services. * Managed Network Services, providing internet management under a single vendor for a complete solution. * Managed IoT Solutions, for agencies and enterprises that require tracking and monitoring. Available as fully-integrated managed services that includes asset/cargo tracking, satellite tracking, fleet tracking and remote monitoring. Until the 2013 sale of all assets and operations, Sierra Wireless also manufactured and marketed AirCard, mobile broadband devices permitting users to connect

notebooks A notebook is a small book often used for writing. Notebook or The Notebook may also refer to: Computing *Laptop, a type of personal computer **Notebook (laptop), a specific, smaller class of laptop *Google Notebook, a discontinued online appli ...

, netbooks, and other electronics to the Internet over 3G and 4G mobile broadband networks via PC or express card slots,

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

ports, or mobile WiFi hotspots.

Community support

Sierra Wireless is an active United Way of the Lower Mainland supporter. For its efforts, the company was recognized with United Way Employee Gold Awards and a 2002 Award of Excellence. In 2003, Canadian

public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

announced the creation of the Sierra Wireless Chair in Wireless Communication, which was funded through annual donations for a three-year period. Upon completion of the original three-year term, the company extended its partnership with the university by establishing an endowed Sierra Wireless Professorship in Mobile Communication. In partnership with the university's School of Engineering Science in the Faculty of Applied Sciences, the Sierra Wireless Mobile Communications Laboratory was opened in November 2012.

References

External links