Milestone: 10 million sensors in the LoRaWAN® network of the Minol-ZENNER Group
Published: 23. Sep 2025
The Minol-ZENNER Group is an international pioneer in the digitalization of the housing industry and the smart city. Today, the Group operates the largest LoRaWAN® network in the world. The ten millionth sensor was integrated into the network in September 2025.
Saarbrücken, September 2025. The Minol-ZENNER network was presented as the world’s largest LoRaWAN® network at the LoRaWAN® Live event in Munich in 2024. Now the Group is celebrating another milestone: the 10 millionth sensor was integrated into its LoRaWAN® network in September. Internationalization began in 2018 with the acquisition of the Danish Brunata A/S. Today, the Group network is available in 15 countries. ZENNER focuses on solutions for the energy industry, water management and the smart city.
“When we started the expansion in 2016, we would not have expected this scale,”
says Alexander Lehmann, Managing Director of the Minol-ZENNER Group.
“Today, we are creating the digital infrastructure to drive forward smart applications and climate protection in many countries. This has made us a global pioneer of digitalization.”
LoRaWAN® as a pioneer for smart city and water management
The topics of LoRaWAN® and smart city are inextricably linked today. Cities are changing. According to the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), the world’s population will grow by around two billion people over the next 60 years – and with it, the demands on our cities in terms of energy supply, mobility and quality of life will increase. At the same time, extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are increasing noticeably. This presents municipal utilities and energy suppliers with new, complex challenges. One thing is clear: cities must become even more efficient, sustainable and resilient in the future.
LoRaWAN® is a real trailblazer for cities. The wireless standard makes it possible to network thousands of sensors and devices cost-effectively and comprehensively. The open wireless standard combines long ranges with low energy consumption.
“LoRaWAN® has revolutionized the way energy suppliers, the housing industry and smart cities work. The technology offers reliable, low-power connectivity and is therefore the basis for many smart use cases,”
explains Zeljko Petrina, Managing Director of ZENNER International GmbH & Co. KG.
Municipal utilities and local authorities are already using LoRaWAN® in a variety of ways: for example in the areas of smart metering and submetering, environmental monitoring, flood protection or for monitoring low-voltage networks in the smart grid.
Smart metering and digital water management
In addition to the LoRaWAN® network, the LoRa Network Server (LNS) developed in-house and its own measuring devices and sensors, ZENNER also offers its self-developed complete solution element suite for smart metering and smart cities. It can be used to digitalize all installation and service processes. Networks, devices and IoT gateways can be managed on the integrated IoT platform. Users can create their own applications using a modular app system.
In order to support water utilities around the world in switching to digital metering via radio in the face of dwindling resources, ZENNER recently developed a solution package for the economical and comprehensive remote reading of water meters: Metering as a Service (MaaS). It combines precise ultrasonic water meters with the option of transmitting measurement data via two different radio technologies – Wireless M-Bus (WM-Bus) and LoRaWAN®. This ensures a future-proof and sustainable water supply.
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Largest LoRaWAN® network in the world
The Minol-ZENNER Group has been relying on LoRaWAN® since 2016 and, as an active member of the LoRa Alliance, is committed to the further development of the open wireless standard. ZENNER Connect GmbH has been operating the LoRaWAN® network for the Group since 2018. Internationalization also began in 2018 with the acquisition of the Danish Brunata A/S. Today, it is the largest LoRaWAN® network in the world, with network availability in 15 countries.
With the successful integration of 10 million sensors, the Minol-ZENNER Group has reached a technological milestone. The group of companies is continuously working on further use cases for LoRaWAN®. The goal is a digital, climate-friendly and resilient future for cities, utilities and the housing industry.