This Startup Is Building A Cellular Network For Your Lightbulb And Toaster

On a drizzly San Francisco afternoon in March, Ludovic Le Moan, 52, climbs to the roof of San Francisco’s stately public library. He’s there to check on a 5-foot pole equipped with a small antenna and a briefcase-size box. It’s one of 22 “base stations” his French startup, Sigfox, has placed throughout the city and one of 6,000 it operates across 18 countries as part of its improbable quest: building a wireless network that will cover at least 100 U.S. cities by year’s end and eventually span much of the planet.