Vodacom’s Internet of Things division passes three million connections milestone.

Vodacom continues to lead in the Internet of Things (IoT), now connecting more than three million ‘things’ in South Africa and averaging 55 000 new connections per month.

Deon Liebenberg, Managing Executive for Vodacom IoT says “Vodacom is pioneering the next wave of connected things in South Africa.  It’s worth noting that it took us eight years to get to two million connections and it took us only one year to get to three million. The rate of IoT adoption is picking up speed locally and with the commercial rollout of NarrowBand-IoT, this is only going to accelerate even faster. The Internet of Things is no longer hype – it’s real and it’s becoming more and more a part of our daily lives.”

In February this year, Vodafone announced that it had become the first global IoT mobile provider to exceed 50 million connections, demonstrating growth of around one million new connections a month, with particularly strong performance in the automotive, healthcare and utilities sectors.

Vodacom opened a Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) laboratory at its Vodacom World campus in June to commercialise machine-to-machine and IoT systems using Narrowband low power. Vodacom announced in 2016 that it had started its NB-IoT network build and it continues to invest in the expansion of its IoT offering, a key strategic growth area.