Where LoRaWAN parking meets its limit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
That record quietly makes the point for us. It was set at sea level, clear line of sight, no obstacles. The Things Network, which logged it, adds the honest footnote itself: most devices on its network sit between 25 and 100 meters from their gateway. Open-air range is the ceiling in perfect conditions, not the number you design a garage around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parking is rarely an open-air problem. A sensor usually sits in a steel-reinforced bay, often several floors underground, surrounded by concrete, parked cars and competing radios. The question is not how far the signal travels. It is whether a status change can get out of level minus four, every time, for years, with nobody on site. That is a penetration problem, and it is where LoRaWAN parking on a deep underground structure starts to need more gateways and more planning than its open-air reputation suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we specify connectivity, three numbers decide it, and range leads none of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can the signal leave the structure? Underground and inside dense buildings, cellular IoT built for deep indoor coverage often gets out where an on-site gateway struggles to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sensor is only as good as the share of events that arrive. If a bay turns over twenty times a day, all twenty messages need to land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Open-air range sounds like fewer gateways. Underground and across a city, the gateway count, the backhaul and the maintenance are the real bill, and a network that needs no gateway on site removes that line entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why, for most parking, we default to cellular IoT, meaning NB-IoT and LTE-M<\/a>. These networks already exist in most countries, so there is nothing to install at a client site. They were built for underground and deep indoor penetration. And they let a single sensor run for up to ten years on one battery while reporting reliably from floors below street level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A simple rule. If you control a wide, open site and want to own the whole network, LoRaWAN parking earns its place, and we build LoRa sensors for exactly those cases. If you need every bay in a dense or underground structure to report with no infrastructure on site, cellular usually wins. The building decides, not the brochure, and not the distance record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1336 kilometer record is worth admiring for what it is. It simply answers a different question than the one a parking operator asks, which is quieter and harder: will every bay, on every floor, report every change, for years, without a technician on site. That is the number we design for. Across more than 71,000 parking sensors<\/a> in over 50 countries, our detection runs at 99.96 percent accuracy<\/a>, chosen to get out of the building rather than to travel the farthest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick the radio for the concrete you actually have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can, but it needs gateways that can hear the sensors, usually installed inside or close to the structure, because concrete and depth weaken the signal. Where the owner does not want to install and maintain gateways on site, cellular IoT such as NB-IoT or LTE-M is usually the more reliable choice for underground bays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither in the abstract. LoRaWAN suits wide, open private sites where you want to own the network and avoid per-device fees. NB-IoT and LTE-M suit dense or underground structures where every bay must report reliably with no gateway on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, a LoRaWAN signal traveled 1336 kilometers from trackers on a fishing boat off Sesimbra, Portugal, to a gateway in the Canary Islands, beating the previous record of 832 kilometers. It was set at sea level with a clear line of sight over open water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LoRaWAN parking sensors explained: when LoRa is the right radio for your site, when NB-IoT or LTE-M wins, and why penetration beats range underground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fleximodo-parking-sensors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"Cross-section](\"https:\/\/fleximodo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/lorawan-signal-out-of-level-4-1024x683.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLoRaWAN parking vs NB-IoT and LTE-M<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Penetration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Reliability<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Total cost of the link<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Comparison](\"https:\/\/fleximodo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/lorawan-vs-nbiot-ltem-1024x576.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow to choose for your site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Does LoRaWAN work for underground parking?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
NB-IoT vs LoRaWAN: which is better for parking?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What is the LoRaWAN distance record?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n