The sky is the limit for South African innovators and entrepreneurs seeking to get aboard the local IOT wave early.
This is according to Gregory Rood, CEO of Sigfox South Africa, who says IOT is in its infancy in South Africa, but adoption is set to soar in future as IOT devices become more affordable.
Rood notes that Sigfox 0G – an international low power network technology specifically designed to support IOT at scale – has seen solid growth in South Africa as sectors such as security, utilities and logistics harness IOT.
He says: “In South Africa, our network has been expanded to cover 91% of the population and 93% of the national roads, including all the national borders and roads leading to the border crossings, where it is supporting efforts to curb cross border vehicle theft.
We have also densified our coverage of metro areas and increased subscriber numbers, with 51.8% growth in the past two years. Much of our growth is in sectors such as security and stolen vehicle recovery, as well as utilities, for water meters and electricity meters. Despite this growth, we still see significant opportunities for South African innovators and entrepreneurs to build solutions on top of the network.”
Rood explains that Sigfox 0G is a low power, robust, un-jammable network with over 1500 base stations in South Africa. Unlike GSM-based IOT, Sigfox 0G’s low power consumption means IOT devices can run on batteries that can last in excess of 10 years. The devices only connect to base stations when an event occurs. This means they are almost impossible to find and jam when in sleep mode.
He says: “Sigfox 0G is the biggest IOT network in the world and the IOT technology of choice for utilities, security, asset tracking and logistics organisations internationally. Globally, there are over 1 billion people and 11 million devices connected in over 70 countries, with an ecosystem of over 800 IOT players developing numerous innovative use cases. Sigfox also offers toolsets to help developers bring new solutions to life.”
Rood says South Africa IOT adoption was slower than expected in recent years, but is picking up as the costs of IOT devices and the software to manage them come down.
He says: “We are constantly seeing pricing coming down and continual innovation in the IOT space, which unlocks more and more potential. Currently, local organisations are focusing on tracking valuable assets such as cars and cargo containers, but as the pricing comes down, they will track smaller and smaller assets – such as individual parcels.
“In the utilities space, we are seeing growing demand not only from municipalities, but also from estate developers, for water and electricity meters running on our network. We also expect logistics companies to start investing more in asset tracking – there is huge value to be unlocked there.”
He notes: “A key advantage of developing solutions to run on the Sigfox 0G network is that the network is low power and stable, offers comprehensive coverage and it has been tried and trusted for high-risk, high value assets for years. This allows channel partners and solution providers to focus on building the end solution.”
Emerging IOT use cases range from soil monitoring in agriculture, wildlife tracking through to swimming pool water monitoring.
Rood says: “There is a lot of room for IOT growth in South Africa, but the Sigfox community in the rest of the world is working on some exciting developments: this year we aim to showcase some of these solutions at our channel partner events to inspire local innovators.”
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