The comms protocol thing nobody found is something you may hear more of, if you're the sort of being to have heard of Bluetooth use for a few metres, and Wifi for a few tens of metres. LoRa will go several miles. It doesn't need a network.
It's useful for Internet Of Things, the hardware is small and cheap, and it's getting more so.
It'll enable public or multi tenant networks to connect multiple applications running in the same network. LoRaWan technology will fulfill to develop smart city with the help of LoRa sensors and automated products/applications.
The modulation it uses is called "Chirping", whereby the transmission frequency switches from one end of the available bandwidth to the other and back, in a defined way. The name speaks to an animal method - biologically inspired design is gaining in importance as a wide-spread movement in design for environmentally-conscious sustainable development. Nature has a tendency to find efficiency where there are few parameters to play with.
It uses particular handy bands which are available, such as 433 MHz and 868MHz which e.g. doorbells and remote thermostats in a house, share.