Abzorb builds shared LoRaWAN network for Essex councils

Abzorb has built a shared regional LoRaWAN network for six South Essex councils and Essex County Council, covering 98% of the region.

The network is intended to let councils deploy connected sensors and monitoring services without building separate infrastructure for each project. Abzorb said it completed the rollout £40,000 under budget by reducing the number of gateway sites from 60 to 44 through radio planning and network mapping.

The participating authorities are Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point, Rochford, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, alongside Essex County Council. The network provides a common platform for services across public buildings, roads and other local assets.

Councils in the region are already using the system for footfall counters in libraries and public spaces, occupancy and damp monitoring in buildings, flood and temperature sensors, bin monitoring, carbon monoxide detection, Legionella compliance monitoring, and vehicle and people counting.

The project reflects a wider push by local authorities to use connected devices to monitor services and assets while avoiding the cost of multiple standalone systems. In this case, the councils used existing dark fibre infrastructure as part of the regional rollout.

Shared model

A central feature of the approach is that the network is shared across several authorities rather than built separately for each one. This means departments can add new sensor-based services to the same network instead of starting a new procurement and installation process for each use.

The platform has been designed as an open system, allowing councils to buy and deploy sensors from different suppliers. Abzorb said this is intended to avoid dependence on a single vendor and give councils more flexibility over future deployments.

It also managed the end-to-end rollout across the 44 gateway sites, including surveys, installation, testing, risk assessment method statements, health and safety compliance, and coordination with individual council locations.

Carol Thomas, Director Digital and ICT & SIRO, Southend-on-Sea City Council, described the project as a collaborative effort across authorities with different requirements.

"What impressed us most about Abzorb was the way they approached this as a genuine partnership. They took the time to understand what we were trying to achieve across six different councils, each with their own priorities and pressures, and came back with a solution that is smart and future-proof," Thomas said.

She added that the final cost reinforced the value of the shared approach for the councils involved.

"We now have a platform that every department across the region can build on, and the fact that it came in under budget only reinforces how much value Abzorb brought to this project. This is exactly the kind of innovative thinking the public sector needs," Thomas said.

Broader use

Alongside the council network, the infrastructure includes a second LoRaWAN network that can be made available to businesses, public sector partners and other organisations in the area. Abzorb said this could support shared learning and create a revenue opportunity for councils from the same infrastructure base.

LoRaWAN is a low-power wide-area networking standard commonly used for connected sensors that send small amounts of data over long distances. In local government settings, it is often used for environmental monitoring, asset tracking and building management because devices can operate for long periods without frequent battery changes.

For councils, one of the main financial barriers to such projects has been the need to justify dedicated infrastructure for each separate service line. A regional network changes that calculation by spreading the underlying cost across multiple authorities and use cases.

That matters as local authorities face pressure to manage buildings, roads and public spaces more efficiently while working within constrained budgets. Shared digital infrastructure has increasingly become one way for councils to test or scale new monitoring systems without committing to repeated civil works or separate network installations.

Dr Dean Al-Sened, Head of Public Sector and Enterprise, Abzorb, said the project showed how detailed network design could cut costs while preserving broad coverage.

"This project is a blueprint for how IoT infrastructure should be delivered across the public sector. By bringing deep technical expertise to the network design phase, we were able to drive out significant cost without compromising on coverage or capability," Al-Sened said.

"The councils get more for less through a platform that will keep delivering value for years to come as new services are added. We believe this model works and we want every council in the UK to benefit from it. Our focus is on delivering digital transformation through shared infrastructure, intelligent design, and a genuine commitment to the customer's long-term goals," he added.