Unlocking Cost-Effective IoT Operations in Africa

It might not come as a surprise that Africa is not an easy market when it comes to using cellular roaming for IoT deployments. 

Due to the rural areas that are lacking the necessary infrastructure, blindspots in connectivity are nearly unavoidable. That poses a large problem for the growing IoT market in the region, especially for moving devices, such as GPS trackers used in fleet management.

In this blog article, we will cover how 1oT has used eSIM in combination with a powerful connectivity management platform that tackles that issue.

Having access to multiple networks has become a necessity when deploying in the region, helping mitigate the risks of disconnecting when IoT devices move across borders. The combination of non-steered network footprint and device automatic network registration configuration is key.

Additionally, it’s crucial to have a clear picture of each SIM’s individual data sessions, and the transparency of SIM transactions. The value comes in for detecting device-level malfunctions and most importantly preventing any ill-willed actions toward the device or the SIM card.

This is where a well-coordinated connectivity management system comes into play. 1oT’s cellular connectivity offering always comes with access to the self-service connectivity management platform 1oT Terminal. 

In addition to simplifying everyday SIM management processes and enabling over-the-air profile swaps on 1oT eSIM, the Terminal comes with a variety of additional features.

One of these features is the Intelligent Connectivity tool, an AI-powered predictive alert system. The value of this tool comes from detecting and notifying you every time there is an anomaly with the device. When issues are detected, they become visible in the Terminal, where you can respond accordingly.

The app comes with a set of nine rules, helping to identify potential problems in the device’s data usage, SMS’, possible network-level issues, and identify stolen devices.

As an example, a logistics company operating in Africa would find this set of rules useful:

• SIM jumping between networks: this rule indicates that there’s either bad connectivity from the carrier side (maybe it’s time for a profile swap?), or there’s something wrong with the SIM itself that would require troubleshooting.
• Device located in a new country: the AI system detects activity in a new country after the device hasn’t left the country of deployment in the past 30 days. This rule helps you keep up with where your devices are exactly located and identify potentially stolen devices.
• Inactive LIVE SIM: this rule triggers when your SIM in LIVE status hasn’t done any data sessions in a month, indicating problems either with the device configurations or the SIM card itself.

1oT sees Africa as a rapidly expanding market for different IoT solutions. We have seen more and more inquiries coming in from various use cases, starting with the FinTech space. The use cases range from point-of-sale terminals to sustainability-centered products, such as PV Panel monitoring controllers, or smart water-treatment systems.

Most of these cases come to look for connectivity in their early research and development stage and need the technical support and the knowledge to ramp up production one step at a time.

To support these early-stage IoT companies, in addition to providing a connectivity service, 1oT has processes in place to help these companies with the component evaluation and cellular module configuration included in the smart device’s firmware. Additionally, we always make sure that these customers are making the most of the 1oT Terminal and help to optimize it according to their needs - be it by leveraging different value-added applications or integrating the Terminal with their own back-end systems.