ZTE South Africa, part of global telecommunications and network solutions provider ZTE Corporation, is working hard to solidify its position within the high-growth IoT industry, which according to the IDC will attract spend of US$1.29 trillion by 2020.

The company believes IoT is moving out of the 'hype cycle' and now is the time to implement relevant technology, platforms and processes.

To this end it has entered into partnership with Intel to jointly establish an innovation lab to facilitate IoT-related R&D, including experimental verification, evaluation and development of related technologies.

The focus is specifically on 5G networks as a key enabling technology in mainstreaming IoT said Julian Ramnarain, Vice Managing Director at ZTE South Africa.

"Both companies have previously collaborated in other fields such as IoT access technologies, open-source collaboration and solution integration. 5G will facilitate communication between smart devices, and it will also enable the future development of IoT," says Ramnarain. "To this end, ZTE has developed a smart IoT operating system that provides intelligent capabilities for IoT terminals and acts as an IoT management platform."

The company's IoT strategy focuses on four areas, namely smart cities, smart homes, industrial IoT and connected vehicles.

"Smart home solutions account for about 30 percent of IoT applications and requirements, and ZTE has already developed a future-oriented control centre, ZTE Alighting, to help homeowners control interconnected smart home appliances from anywhere in the world with just a smartphone. Security monitoring via smart cameras will also drive the adoption of IoT in the smart home.

Connected vehicles are already established as one of the primary uses of IoT. ZTE has worked with Chinese car maker, Geely, to make safer and better-maintained vehicles for both private and commercial use. Connected cars can also help keep drivers updated with pertinent weather and traffic information, and are already being used by insurers to incentivise safer driving habits, to manage fleets more effectively and to streamline logistics across the supply chain," reads a statement from the company.

To meet the demand for technology in these areas, ZTE is building solutions that use narrow band IoT (NB-IoT), LTE and various modules for smart devices and software to accelerate the development of sensor technologies.

The company added that it has also formulated end-to-end security solutions to enable customers to plan, construct and operate solutions simultaneously.

In Africa the company is involved in various technology integration projects, and it names the IoT services with MTN SA, the Nigeria public safety project and the Sudan police station iTransportation project as examples.

With regard to MTN SA, ZTE is involved in IoT commercial projects and coverage across the mobile operator's subordinate branches of 20 countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana.