I occasionally watch the guy with the Swiss accent on YouTube. Andreas Spiess has been doing a bit of work recently on the range of various radio communications standards. These include both WhisperNodes and LoRa, operating in the 898Mhz band.
In the video below he attempts to beat a record set by Texas Instruments in Cape Town, South Africa. Texas Instruments previously held the record for the furthest distance covered using a LoRa transmission. Andreas achieves this using careful mapping of the target gateways and signal analysis before going on a drive to various points further and further away from the target node. This target is conveniently located on the top of a mountain in Switzerland, so providing a good transmission horizon.) He finally ends up at the top of some castles in France, and still manages a connection.
Watch his attempt and see if he succeeds in setting a record, as well as convincing me that transmission distance is not something to worry about with LoRa and IoT deployments (it’s more a question of line of sight).
Correction: Changed original location from Texas to Cape Town, South Africa